Kerr's five-word reaction to her goal shows just how deeply loss has cut her

Sam Kerr's sublime second-half strike will go down in Aussie sporting folklore, but the striker had a revealing take on the goal after the crushing disappointment of the Matildas' 3-1 defeat to England.

Making her first start of the tournament after overcoming the calf injury that had limited her to just 75 minutes of football at the World Cup, the Matildas skipper delivered when her country needed her most.

With just over an hour played and Australia trailing 1-0 to Ella Toone's brilliant first-half goal, Kerr seized the moment with a long-range shot to level the match in front of 75,000 screaming fans.

'Unreal. Best in the world,' former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright tweeted in response to Kerr's stunning finish.

But the fairytale soon fell apart, with Lauren Hemp putting England back ahead before Alessia Russo finished things off to crush the Aussies' dreams of winning their home World Cup.

After the match a reporter spoke to an emotional Kerr about the wonder goal.

'It was a great goal,' he said.

However, Kerr wasn't interested in taking any credit.

'Yeah, I guess,' she replied.

'It really doesn't matter now. All I can think about is disappointment right now.'

Coach Tony Gustavsson admitted after the match that his side had some chances late in the game that they should have put away - two of which were missed by the skipper.

'I know that she's upset that she missed the two chances at the end of the game,' Gustavsson said.

'That's why she's worried, she always wants to score, she looks at herself as a goal scorer, a game-winner. She's going to be upset with that.

'We need to support her, she did everything she could to dig deep and the fact that she was able to play 90 minutes [was massive].

'Who knows what it would have been like if she had been healthy?'

Gustavsson's decision to pick Kerr in the starting side was made knowing his side had managed to rise to the occasion without her in their first three matches of the tournament.

The Chelsea forward missed the group stage with a calf injury before being eased back in with 10 minutes against Denmark and then an hour or so against France in the quarter-final victory.

Socceroos legend John Aloisi said the striker missed her later shots on goal because she was underdone.

'I will put that down to fatigue with Sam,' he said on Channel Seven's coverage.

'She came on last game and played longer than she expected to play. Her legs were probably gone a little bit.

'That is when you start snatching at things. The two chances she had, she was snatching at them.'

Kerr's first goal of the tournament was her sixth score in a World Cup and her 64th overall for the Matildas.