Marissa Sheva could hardly believe that she was shaking hands with the President of Ireland on Thursday night.
The arrival of Michael D Higgins onto the pitch to greet the players before the France game came as a shock to the Philadelphia-born attacker.
Little did they know that Higgins has been a regular at League of Ireland matches in the capital since his arrival at Aras an Uachtarain in 2011.
And before that he was seen supporting his beloved Galway United on a near-weekly basis.
But to the US-born members of the squad, meeting the President is something they would associate with an honour bestowed on national champions.
US President Joe Biden has welcomed the winners of several sports to the White House during his time in charge so far.
Sheva recalled the moment she realised that she would be shaking hands with Higgins.
“We were standing in line and I’m next to (San Diego-born) Kyra Carusa,” she said.
“I didn’t know the President was coming to the match. I tapped Kyra and said, ‘That’s the President’, and she said, ‘Oh, my God’.
“It was an incredible send off in that regard. He shook all of our hands and said ,”Good luck, ladies.”
Between meeting the President and playing in front of a record 7,632 crowd, it was quite the home debut for Sheva.
“The girls prepared me by saying how incredible the atmosphere is. The surface is amazing and you’ll feel the support from fans in a small packed stadium,” she said.
She had family and friends in the crowd, while her Tyrone grandfather John McCaul watched on from his living room.
“I know he was sitting on his couch in his Ireland jersey.
“I had some family in the crowd, family I don’t get to see. So that was incredible.
“Two of my cousins and some of their friends (were in attendance). It’s so good to see them.
“We were delighted to see each other regardless of the result. I hope we did them proud.
“I have their full support, the team has their full support. My grandmother is from Donegal, my grandfather from Tyrone.”
Hailing from Sellersville, Pennsylvania, a small town near Philadelphia, Sheva burst onto the international scene earlier this year when she made her debut against China in Spain.
If Thursday’s friendly is anything to go by - and Pauw promised beforehand to play her strongest side - the 26-year-old could find herself in the starting-11 against Australia on July 20.
“I’ve not wrapped my mind around that to be perfectly honest,” she said.
“I don’t think the starting-11 (against France), or any starting-11, would ever take that for granted or become complacent.
“We have girls who can stand up and play over myself, and other girls.
“It’s competitive in training. Whatever role I end up playing in Oz, I’ll play it to my best abilities, whether that’s a starter or someone that comes off the bench.”
Sheva has been quick to settle into life in the Irish camp, with the Washington Spirit ace striking up strong on-field understandings with her teammates.
“Katie (McCabe) and I were talking in training the other day that it was the first time we were really gelling,” she said.
“We’d been trying to get to each other on and off the pitch, which is tough because that takes time.
“It’s gone really well. I think the relationships are getting stronger after a few new players have come into the system, including myself.
“We should need to sharpen up and we saw how good it can be in that first 45 minutes and from the second 45 how it needs to be a lot better.
“They were two different halves that we can learn from. We can improve heading to Australia.”
She added: “We were chatting after the game that it was good to experience going down (conceding twice in first-half stoppage time to France).
“You need to be prepared for anything that could happen at the World Cup.
“Hopefully it doesn’t and we learnt from the final minutes of the first half that it doesn’t happen again.”
