Two games in, not a goal scored, and Sam Kerr's teammates are already comparing her to the Hulk. That tells you everything about where her reputation sits in the NWSL right now.
"You thought this was everything and no, we're bringing on the Hulk," Gotham FC's Midge Purce said after Kerr came off the bench to help the reigning champions claw back a 0-2 deficit and win 3-2. Kerr didn't score. She didn't need to.
At 32, and after six and a half years defining Chelsea's era in the Women's Super League, Kerr has returned to the American league where she built her name. She's playing for Gotham FC — yes, it's a DC city, not Marvel — and she's clearly not here just to wind down. The 2028 Women's World Cup in Brazil is already on her radar as a Matildas target.
The A-League Women problem isn't subtle
While Kerr is getting standing ovations at sold-out NWSL venues — her debut drew over 42,000 fans at the New York Mets' home ground, a record for a women's sports event in New York City — the conversation back home is far less flattering for Australian football administrators.
Kerr didn't mince words. "If it paid enough and it was a top league, a lot of us Matildas would go back, but to better ourselves for the national team, we have to go overseas." The A-League Women currently pays the lowest wages of any of Australia's major women's domestic competitions. That's not a reputation crisis waiting to happen — it's already happening.
She remembers when the W-League, as it was known, was genuinely competitive. When NWSL players and WSL players would come over for guest stints. When the best players in the world were in Australian stadiums week in, week out. That era is gone. Kerr and goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold are now the only regular Matildas in the USA. Most others have gone to Europe.
- A-League Women wages: lowest among Australia's major women's domestic leagues
- Matildas abroad: majority now based in Europe, not the NWSL or ALW
- NWSL growth: expanded from 8 to 16 teams since 2013, with Trinity Rodman reportedly earning $2.86 million per year
- Gotham FC: reigning NWSL champions, moving to a purpose-built Queens stadium in 2028
The NWSL is not standing still
The league Kerr left in the mid-2010s and the one she's returned to are barely the same competition. The commercial growth is real. Rodman's contract alone signals where the ceiling is heading. Gotham's move from New Jersey to a football-specific stadium in Queens, shared with NYCFC, is the kind of infrastructure decision that compounds over time.
New Ireland international signing Denise O'Sullivan, another new Gotham acquisition, called it "the best league in the world" and pointed to its depth. "I don't think you can go into any game not right in it." Coming from a player who just left European football, that's not just hype.
Kerr was more measured on the WSL vs NWSL debate. "I love both leagues, but yes, such different games in both countries." She's not about to torch the league she just left. But her feet have already voted.
Fans at her second game — a rain-delayed, low-key affair at a track-encircled venue, the other side of the NWSL's infrastructure coin — were already wearing freshly printed Kerr number 20 jerseys. One of them, an eight-year-old named Matilda who just moved from Sydney, was there with her parents. The story writes itself.
"Sam has been gone from the league for six and a half years, and we still see her name at the top of the NWSL scoring record," said one fan from Brooklyn. "If any NWSL fan doesn't know her, that's on them."
