It's Always Been You

Chapter 6

September 2021 - Lyon, France

The next day at training was surprisingly not that awkward between Daan and I. We seemed to just brush away the previous night's events, and performed well together. It was an early morning session, and we started off with the bleep test. Although I had good stamina, considering I was a midfielder, it was something I absolutely despised. Afterwards, it was filled with even more fitness, and by midday, I was shattered.

At lunch, I decided to go ask Daan to film a video for Lyon's social media. One of the social media admins had asked me a few days before whether I wanted to find someone to film a 'national team' quiz with me, and although I was initially going to ask Ellie, I thought that it might be a perfect opportunity to improve me and Daan's relationship.

"Hey Danielle?" I asked, tentatively going up to her table. She looked up at me questioningly, but I couldn't tell whether it was with enthusiasm or not, and she wouldn't give anything away with her eyes.

"So, one of the media guys asked if I could find someone to do a national team quiz with and I was wondering if you wanted to?" As soon as I said that, her previously unreadable expression turned into one of suspicion, but eventually she agreed, although rather reluctantly.

"Of course." She replied, smiling, perhaps a little too brightly. I had tried to be really nice, and I guess she decided to reciprocate, which was nice, even if her acting skills weren't very good.

We were told beforehand the rules of the challenge, with around three questions being asked in total, and a strike for a wrong answer. Three strikes, and you lose.

"So first just introduce yourself and your country, and then call it the 'national team quiz', and we'll continue from there." The interviewer instructed, before starting the video.

"Hi, I'm Valentine Dahlberg and I play for the Swedish national team."

"And I'm Danielle van de Donk and I play for the Netherlands, and this is the national team quiz."

"Ok, starting off. Name 2019 World Cup goal scorers." the interviewer said, "There's quite a few which you might think would make it easier, but others have said that it's surprisingly difficult."

"Ok," I started, already knowing I wouldn't be winning the round, I was so bad when it came to facts like this, "Stina Blackstenius."

"Now it's my turn?" Danielle asked, and the interview nodded, prompting her to continue, "Vivianne Miedema. Wait is it just from our own country?"

"No, all goal scorers." We were told, and I immediately sighed in relief, as it would hopefully be much easier, since there would be more options.

"Alex Morgan. I'm going to be so bad at this I can tell." I said, sighing as though I had already lost. 

"Lieke Martens."

"Rose Lavelle?"

"Yeah against us. Hmm, Megan Rapinoe. Also against us. I guess we're going for the Americans." Daan and I named the goal scorers of the final, where the US beat the Netherlands.

"I don't know any more Americans who scored, oh - Jackie Groenen. Knocked us out." I said shrugging, reminiscing about our third place finish, "Thanks for that actually, I enjoyed third place."

Daan surprisingly actually smiled, saying, "Ok, but second is higher than first."

"Maybe in a statistical ranking, but you know the song second is the worst, first is the best, third it's the one with a treasure chest?"

"Fine, I agree, third is nice. Anyways, Jill Roord?"

"Dominique Janssen? Or Bloodworth."

"Why aren't you saying any from Sweden?" She questioned, a suspicious tone in her voice.