Last season's A-League Young Player of the Year - who also represented the Olyroos at last year's Tokyo Olympics - continued his meteoric rise in Australian football when he became the 615^th player to represent the Socceroos on Thursday night.

King's opportunity came in bizarre circumstances, with usual Aussie left-back, Turkey-based defender Aziz Behich was ruled out after being unable to fly home due to a major snowstorm in Istanbul.

Instead, the Shellharbour talent started in his position as the Socceroos claimed a thumping 4-0 win over Vietnam in their 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup qualifying clash in Melbourne. Jamie McLaren, Tom Rogic, Craig Goodwin and Riley McGree all found the back of the net in the rout.

"It was a good feeling. Obviously it's been a dream of mine to play for the Socceroos since I was a young boy. To pull on the green and gold was a really special moment for me," King told the Mercury.

"At the start, it was very frantic, so I really did notice a change of pace. I can remember looking at the clock thinking it must have been 30 minutes, and it was actually eight minutes. It took me a while to adapt but after a while, I adapted to the pace and just played my normal game.

"Obviously we knew it was a crucial game in our qualifying campaign. But we knew if we played well enough, we could get the win and score a few goals."

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Thursday night's win helped Australia move within striking distance of Saudi Arabia and Japan in their group. The two top sides will to book a ticket to the World Cup in Qatar late this year, while the third-placed side is set to get a last ditch-chance in the fourth round.

Saudi Arabia have accumulated 16 points to lead the group from Japan (15) and Australia (14).

The Socceroos have three qualification games left and will next travel overseas to face Oman on February 2. Behich is expected to be available for that game, but that first international taste has left King wanting more.

"A goal of mine is to get as many caps as I can for the Socceroos. I think it would be poor for me to think that one cap is enough, and settle with that. I'm obviously still striving for better things to come," the 21-year-old said.

"But it's only just sinking in now. It's a bit surreal looking at photos of me walking out next to Rogic and Aaron Mooy, who are players that I've looked up to for quite some time now. I've watched a lot of Mooy in the Prem (English Premier League) and Rogic at Celtic, so it's pretty surreal to think that I played in the same team as them on Thursday night."

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