Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw is the best women’s striker in world football
The notable thing about Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw’s hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur is how simple the Manchester City striker makes all three goals look. A volley in the six-yard box from a failed clearance following Alex Greenwood’s corner. A back-post header from another Greenwood corner, Shaw rising above those of Spurs’ smaller defenders.
Another towering six-yard box header, this time from Kerolin Nicoli’s lifted cross. They are the class of goals upon which the City striker’s legend resides, the bread and butter of her lore, which, after City’s 5-2 Women’ Super League win against Spurs, now includes the fastest hat-trick in WSL history at 12 minutes and 37 seconds (usurping Arsenal legend Kelly Smith’s 16-minute effort), but also the earliest (arriving inside 21 minutes). Yet it’s a unique phenomenon that a series of goals can be so undeniably textbook and simultaneously threaten to undersell the player entirely.
Because what the words “header”, “close-range volley” and even “fourth successive hat-trick against Spurs at home in the WSL” fail to confer is everything that Shaw does to transform a feat of striking excellence (a hat-trick) into a kind of footballing MOT. There’s the dexterity to manoeuvre her body in a crowded space for the first, the instinctive understanding of precisely where the goal is in relation to her own centre of gravity. There’s the sheer strength for the second and third, not only to push her nearest defenders into compromised positions with just one arm but to simultaneously summon the force to propel the ball forwards as she herself is falling backwards.
There’s the intelligence of her positioning for all three, but particularly the third, with Shaw putting space between herself and Kerolin at the top of Spurs’ 18-yard box to seem totally unsuspicious to the two Spurs defenders who should know better. 11 appearances. 13 goals.
3 hat-tricks. 🇯🇲🩵 pic. twitter.
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