Chelsea's back-flipping virtuoso said she 'put on a show' in the FA Cup Final because her girlfriend was in the stands

• Sam Kerr scored two stellar goals in Chelsea's 3-0 rout over Arsenal to win the 2020-21 FA Cup Final.

• She said having her girlfriend, USWNT star Kristie Mewis, in the stands motivated her to play well.

• "My girlfriend's here," the Australian superstar said. "That's why I had to put on a show."

Sam Kerr put on a show for Chelsea in the Blues' 3-0 victory over a star-studded Arsenal squad in the Women's FA Cup Final.

It turns out the Australian international had a little extra motivation to play well.

"My girlfriend's here," Kerr said after the game. "That's why I had to put on a show."

US Women's National Team midfielder Kristie Mewis, whom Kerr has been dating for several months at minimum, was in the stands at Wembley Stadium to watch the superstar striker compete in Sunday's championship match between two of London's best clubs. Kerr went ahead and netted an impressive goal to double Chelsea's lead early in the second half of the game, then tacked on another golazo 20 minutes later to finish the lopsided contest with a brace.

Surely that was enough to impress Mewis; it was enough to be named the Player of the Match.

Kerr first found her way into the scoring column with a beautiful run behind the back line in the 57th minute. Teammate Fran Kirby delivered a beautiful through ball towards the corner flag, and Kerr beat her Arsenal defender in a leg race to maintain possession. Then she showed off her impressive footwork, shaking her defender as she inched into the 18-yard box and firing off a low strike just inside the near post.

Her 77th-minute goal was an absolute beauty. A teammate connected with Kerr after she made a run up the right flank. She took two long dribbles and, once she made her way into the box, stutter-stepped to ditch an oncoming defender.

Then she chipped the ball right over the keeper's head.

It's unclear when exactly Kerr and Mewis' trans-continental relationship first started, but fans began noticing the superstar couple's not-so-subtle flirting on each other's Instagrams earlier in the year. By the time Australia and the USWNT faced off in the Tokyo Olympics, it wasapparent that the two were romantically involved.

That is, to everyone but a woman named Stacey, who has become a women's soccer cultural icon for her naiveté about the nature of Kerr and Mewis' relationship.

Due to increased proximity to one another, or perhaps just for Stacey's sake, the couple has been more forward about their relationship in recent months. They regularly post photos together to social media and have begun speaking about each other more openly in public forums.

Though the relationship appears to be going strong, they're still separated by at least one full ocean more often than not. Mewis can rest assured that her back-flipping girlfriend will put on a clinic any time she's in the audience.

When she's on the field opposing her, though? Well, that's a different story.

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