However, it wasn't just any local five-a-side tournament but it was Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five Competition, the largest competition of it's kind in the world. 

Adelaide Comets Mellanye Targino, Alexia Scalzi, Victoria Mansueto, Stephanie Christensen, Sarah Chappel joined their Melbourne-based teammate Abbey Flight entered the tournament in 2018 for a bit of fun. 

"At the start, we didn’t know anything about (the competition), we just thought we would give it a crack,” captain Mansueto said.

However, a few months later, the starlets found themselves being flown to Brazil to compete against top international teams. 

It all started when Comets coach Tony Mansueto suggested the competition to the team and got them interested in the possibility of playing street soccer.

The format is pretty simple; each match runs for 10 minutes with no goalkeepers with teams losing a player every time the opposition scores.

The team with the highest score or number of remaining players move on to the next round.   

The Comets had never played in organised five-a-side competition before and they surprised themselves when they went through the entire tournament in Adelaide undefeated.

"It was a little shock to us all as we entered for a bit of fun," Chappel said.

"It didn’t really hit us until the finals were over in Adelaide that we all realized that we were going to the next stage in Sydney."