"It's just who I was, without question."
There are plenty of US-born booters in the Filipinas. In fact, Anicka Castañeda is the lone home-grown player in the final cut. And yet they have chosen, without fail, to raise the Philippine flag.
Hali Long, the co-captain of the Philippine women's national football team, shared with reporters on Thursday why she chose to represent the Philippines since 2016.
"It's just who I was, without question," Long said in a pre-match press conference in New Zealand. "I would say that would be my deciding factor."
The Missouri-born defender shared what it was like in her home in an affectionate way, "Kinda makes me emotional. I was in a very annoying Filipino household growing up—my lola, my mom, and my tita raised me and my two sisters."
"I knew nothing different. I didn't know I was different where I was," she added.
"The culture I've always known in America, to be able to represent my heritage, my mom, my sisters—how powerful they were to come to America and to raise me and to give me a better life—just to have that opportunity, to be able to bring it back home to my mom, to my lola, it's such an honor," Long explained.
And she has carried that flag with pride with her 74 appearances for the Philippines, with 18 goals to her name.
Long will now be part of history, as she and co-captain Tahnai Annis, along with the rest of the Filipinas, as they make their FIFA Women's World Cup debut against Switzerland this Friday at 1 p.m. You can catch the match live on One Sports and Pilipinas Live.