Mary Fowler helped Australia to beat a gutsy Republic of Ireland at the Accor Stadium on Thursday and then reflected on her close connection to the Emerald Isle.
The 20-year-old started in Sydney in place of the injured Sam Kerr and pockmarked the game with moments of class.
Fowler, an elegant and intelligent footballer, has taken time to fully adjust to life at Manchester City - who she joined from Montpellier last summer - but she looks the real deal any time she pulls on a Matildas shirt.
And yet it all could have been so different had she taken up the opportunity to play for the Girls in Green.
Fowler was born in Cairns to an Irish father and Papa New Guinean mother. She had options when it came to international football; indeed, her brother Caoimhín and sister Ciara both represented Ireland at underage level.
The FAI were certainly interested, but Australia won the race, capping the prodigiously talented attacker when she was just 15 years old.
Fowler is now one of the Aussies' biggest names, but she still regularly hops across the Irish Sea from Manchester to Ballymun in Dublin to visit her grandad and says she has a real affinity with the country.
"It's nice to have that connection, to be able to represent Australia but feel Irish as well."
"It’s something that could have been in another world I guess, but it’s nice to have that connection, to be able to have that memory of the first country that I was very much connected with," she said.
"I have lots of memories. I’ve got my grandad still over in Ireland and relatives. It’s nice to have that connection, to be able to represent Australia but feel Irish as well.
"It was a tough game. Fair play to Ireland, they are a tough team and we knew that coming into this game, that it was going to be a hard one. It's amazing for us to be start off our tournament with a win."
Fowler was blunt about Kerr's misfortune.
"Sometimes s**t happens," she said when asked about captain's calf injury.
"It was very unfortunate. She is a massive player. She means so much to us girls. She means so much to the country.
"She has been so supportive to us and that just shows her character and the type of person she is and what she means to this team.
"The most important thing is going out there and performing. Every game is going to be a fight, every game will be a final."
Caitlin Foord led the line for the Aussies and echoed Fowler's assessment of Vera Pauw's team.
It was a bruising encounter in front of over 75,000 fans, with Foord's Arsenal clubmate Katie McCabe laying down a marker for her side with a few bone-rattling tackles.
"I mean, she's obviously my team-mate back in England so I know what she's about," said Foord.
"I knew what she wanted to bring. I guess a fiery battle - they gave us that, and we just didn't want to get into it and play our game. We did that most of the time.
"They're a good side. They're hard to break down and as you seen, we only got one goal against them, we had a couple of shots but they put their body in front of it and we knew they were going to be like that.
"All credit to them, big game, first World Cup game, I thought they came out and did really well."
"I think this game was just one that [herself and Katie] wanted to get out of the way. Now we can be friends but... before this game, no, we're not friends, but we can be now - unless she doesn't want to any more!"
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