Charlotte Grant wasn't even in the frame when she saw the space ahead of her and started running.
As Sam Kerr tore off down the right wing, chasing a Hayley Raso through-ball, the broadcast camera at Brentford Community Stadium panned to the right and zoomed in, following the Matildas captain's every step.
There was just one yellow shirt for Kerr to aim for: Cortnee Vine, the zippy substitute, slowing to a jog near the penalty spot, guarded on either side by two English defenders.
But beyond this little triumvirate of yellow and blue — beyond what everybody was focusing on — there was someone else.
Kerr spotted Grant first. The striker put her head down and, with one swift movement, sliced a cross at such speed and geometry that it arced over everybody and fell right to where the left-back was arriving.
The 21-year-old didn't connect with the ball so much as collide with it, barrelling through the rainy London night head-first, carried by a momentum that felt like it had started in some other place, a long time ago.
She headed it with such force that her legs couldn't keep up; her upper body spilling out across the slick grass like a child flung down a water-slide. Grant soon had a front-row seat to the theatre that unfolded in the 6-yard box: the ball spinning off Leah Williamson and bouncing, with slow and weighty drama, into the back of the net.
Her reaction — and the reactions of her screaming, flailing team-mates — said it all. It was the young defender's first goal for Australia, and a goal that would put the Matildas 2-0 up against the reigning European Champions England, snapping their 30-match unbeaten streak and planting a seed of doubt into their Women's World Cup preparations.
But more than those two things, Grant's goal represented something else. It's what head coach Tony Gustavsson calls "the bigger picture": the quiet, persistent, and sometimes painful work that has been going on behind the curtain of this team since he arrived.
It's been exactly two years since Gustavsson's first international window with the Matildas. Heading into those April 2021 games against Germany and the Netherlands, the newly-arrived coach was adamant that Australia play as many difficult opponents as possible in order to get a clear idea of exactly where the Matildas sit relative to the rest of the world. With a World Cup on the horizon, he wanted his team to walk into the tournament with open eyes.
That window was about as disastrous as can be: with a squad battered by COVID-19, and the first trickle of dozens of new players thrown into the side to build squad depth, the Matildas copped 10 goals in two games in 5-2 and 5-0 losses.
Grant was part of this new wave of unknown and uncapped players slowly drip-fed into the senior team, called up in the following window as Australia lost 3-2 to Denmark before drawing 0-0 with Sweden.
"That was the start of the process," Gustavsson said last week, "of making this team."
Grant watched, largely from the bench, as the international windows came and went and the losses began to pile up: Japan, Sweden, USA, Republic of Ireland, South Korea, Spain, Canada.
There appeared to be, from the outside, no clear picture to see. Their football was played in patches, their system was inconsistent, their style was incoherent, their roster and roles were regularly changing.
On the outside, impatience and panic started to eclipse faith. The microscope of the home World Cup made every small bump appear mountainous, every hiccup a death-rattle.
On the inside, though, the bigger picture was always in view, and Grant's evolution perfectly encapsulates it.
Following the loss of Ellie Carpenter to an ACL last May, Grant (who'd only had three appearances for Australia in all of 2021) was suddenly asked to fill the shoes of a generational talent.
The young full-back, having emerged through Adelaide United in the A-League Women only a few years earlier, rapidly found herself up against the best players in the world. She struggled at first, of course, and was part of the team responsible for some of the lowest ebbs of Gustavsson's reign.
But they were necessary pains; harsh reminders of what was needed in order to grow. So Grant took herself off to Sweden, joining champions Rosengård and Vittsjö as she worked towards becoming the version of herself she needed to be for her country.
In the past two windows — February's Cup of Nations, and this two-game series against Scotland and England — from beyond the frame of what we could see, that version has finally arrived.
Not only has Grant become an impressive substitute for Carpenter, but her ability to play with both feet also saw her deputise on the opposite flank for the injured Steph Catley. Instead of burning her up, Grant's trial-by-fire over the past year has forged her into something else: something as sharp and solid as a diamond.
"Charlie proved, from day one — when she struggled a bit at international football, which is natural because the tempo is much higher than they're used to — but with the right mindset... she really represents a lot of the things and the grit of this team," Gustavsson said after the England game.
"Look at her journey. She had zero caps when I came on board. I've said it from day one that the work Australian football is doing with the players that we have is why we can perform this way; it's the development that happens in the clubs.
"She was put in the stands when she played for her club in Sweden. Not even on the game roster. Then loaned out to Vittsjo. And look at what she does now against England.
"That grit and commitment to always get one day better... I'm so happy for her. She represents a lot about what this team stands for."
It wasn't just Grant whose performance against England vindicated the process of the past two years, though.
Kyra Cooney-Cross had arguably her best 90 minutes in a Matildas jersey alongside the inexhaustible Katrina Gorry, who Gustavsson eased back into national team duty following childbirth and fading form.
The midfield pair were supported from behind by three-cap sensation Clare Hunt, whose long-range pass set up Kerr for Australia's first goal on Wednesday. Vine once again demonstrated her versatility and game-changing abilities off the bench, while Mackenzie Arnold built upon her stand-out Cup Of Nations performances to arguably cement herself as the Matildas' starting goalkeeper heading into July.
These are all players that, at the start of Gustavsson's project, were either on the periphery, or were not part of the Matildas at all. Now, they have become almost indispensable, providing depth and dimension to a team that has, historically, over-relied on a small core of exhausted veterans who have often fallen apart the further they've made it through major tournaments.
Player for player, club for club, the Matildas didn't match the Lionesses on paper. Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, and Arsenal regulars went toe-to-toe with players from "smaller" leagues like Sweden, Norway and Australia who had to stand up in the absence of over 700 caps' worth of injured senior starters.
But as a team, the Matildas were able to draw upon something much deeper than individual talent.
It's something that Gustavsson called "heart": the commitment, the fight, and the spirit that the Matildas have always been known for, but which they have sometimes relied too heavily upon at the expense of modern, systematic, choreographed football.
Now, after two years, they finally have the "head" — the leadership, the tactics, the depth, the game management — to match it.
Their win over England was one of the most comprehensive, mature, and disciplined of Gustavsson's tenure: a win that was not simply a rush-of-blood reactive goal-fest, like their victory over Team GB in Tokyo, but one that was plotted and planned out from the first minute to the last.
"We might not have the biggest resources, we might not have the most players in the big clubs in the big leagues, but what we have is heart and commitment and pride representing Australia," Gustavsson said afterwards.
"And when you have that — when you have players this loyal and this committed — I've always believed in this team. I'm so proud to be part of it.
"So in that sense, the internal belief has always been there.
"We know that, at any given day, we might not have the best team, but we can beat the best team. And that's what's needed in a tournament. You saw a lot of tournament football out there today."
Grant wasn't even in the frame when she saw the space ahead and started running. Now the bigger picture is coming into view, exactly when it needs to.
