ALL YOU COULD do is laugh.
At the audacity, the ability and the beauty of it all.
This is football.
This is Lauren James: the 21-year-old who has broken into superstar status with a World Cup performance to cherish.
Two goals – one a curler with her right, the other a side-foot volley with her left – and three deft, first-time assists delivered five England goals against China PR.
She was taken off and wrapped in cotton wool by the time they made it 6-1.
England have topped the group and head for the knockout stages with the sort of confidence and verve that will leave rivals worried. James is now the figurehead, a player who wasn’t part of the squad when they claimed their Euro 2020 trophy on home soil and didn’t start the opener Down Under against Haiti.
This is what would have been facing Ireland in the last-16 had they managed to nab runners-up spot.
Instead it is Nigeria who must deal with an England team hitting a powerful stride despite a raft of injuries, not to mention a tactical switch.
The emergence of James is the reason for their renaissance, a player who seems capable of doing it all.
She began her career with Arsenal, left for Manchester United and has won back-to-back Women’s Super League titles with Chelsea – her brother Reece known to a Premier League audience – after heading back to London in 2021.
Yet still this feels like the birth of a superstar; the rise of a talent breaking into elite status.
She would have had a hat-trick had a sublime left-footed strike, caressed into the top corner with a kind of care and consideration for the ball, not been disallowed for an offside in the build up.
She did notch a treble of assists when her pass into the channel for Chloe Kelly was misread by China PR goalkeeper Yu Zhu and led to a tap in.
It was the easiest of finishes for the Manchester City striker.
Fitting, really, as James had spent the entire game making everything look so effortless, a display that enthralled with individual moments of game-changing ruthlessness as well as sparkling skill.
It was her deft header into the path of Alessia Russo in the fourth minute that led to England’s opener.
From then on she operated with a freedom across the attacking third while also carrying out her defensive duties with impressive relish.
Whisper it, but in terms of work ethic and awe-inspiring ability, there were shades of how Wayne Rooney introduced himself to Euro 2004 two decades ago.
When England doubled their lead in the 26th minute it was James who showed awareness in the middle of the pitch to let a pass from the advancing Mille Bright run across her body instead of laying off for a simple one-two.
The pitch opened up as a result and her first-time threaded ball to Lauren Hemp allowed her score the easiest of one-on-one chances.
Then came the kind of individual moment that you hope has been captured by photographers – like the one of Maradona against Belgium at the 1982 World Cup.
When Hemp scurried down the left flank she turned back for support with a sea of red around her. James showed for the pass and took the ball with five Chinese players boxing her in.
She didn’t flinch, James simply drew Li Mengwen and Lou Jiahui in closer before dragging her right foot over the ball to change her body shape and face them up. In an instant, as Mengwen snapped at her heels, James flicked the ball from behind her with her left to take it back into the box. Wu Chengshu tried to intercept but James simply cut through and spread the play to keep England in possession.
It was a sensational piece of play, the epitome of confidence and belief in ability.
James has it all, and she had her goal on 41 minutes when she was left unmarked at the edge of the box, cutting across the lay up with a right-foot strike that was arrowed into the far corner.
The disallowed strike in injury-time, this time with her left, would have been even better, but the crowning glory came in the 65th minute.
China PR had got a goal back early in the second half and England were somewhat rattled for the first time.
James settled them down with a cushioned volley, keeping her eye on the ball for the 30 yards it floated in the air from Lucy Bronze’s diagonal before meeting it on the run and directing it into the top corner.
“What dreams are made of,” she said afterwards.
“I felt free.”