“That’s the difference between being playing a higher level of football and a lower level of football. You take your chances. You might only get once chance away from home and you must learn to take that one chance that you may get.”

“He played very, very well. He didn’t make any mistakes. He was solid and he concentrated,” said Head Coach Marco Schallibaum when asked for his assessment of the youngster’s performance. "He also played a simple game, like I asked of him. He did very well for a first game."

But, if even a 2026 bid launch is going to become a reality, we’ll need to have a good look at ourselves. On Thursday, when the Women’s World Cup schedule was unveiled, all the plums went to Edmonton and Vancouver.