Euro 2022 Rewind: Sticker Books, Family Picnics & Rach Being “Put On Her Arse”

0:00Rach:Before we get into today's episode of Daily Brightness, we just want to say a huge thank you to our proud partners, Shaw, for being with us from the very beginning and what a start it's been. I think the reaction to our podcast so far has been nothing but positive from our family, from our friends, from our teammates, from our fans. It's been really nice to see all the positive reviews and feedback, so keep that all coming. Yeah, I also think that we've probably learned a lot about ourselves and me and Rach always talk about this podcast. you know it's more than just us chatting it's actually like a little therapy session and I've actually learned a lot about myself and I feel like it's given me the confidence to open up a little bit more and show that more vulnerable side so yeah it's been really really refreshing and we also get to appreciate all the things that we've achieved Rach everything you're achieving with Villa you know the form at the end of the season me getting my 200th in the WSL and talking about all our accomplishments the hard times yeah it's becoming a really nice platform actually and I'm really enjoying where it's going but thank you to everyone for the amazing support so thanks again to Shaw for showing up for women's football and backing the pod from day one and thank you all for tuning in for adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms every choice matters trimphaya offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start trimphaya is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks.

1:30If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tremphaya, proper training is required. Tremphaya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Trimfia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit TrimfiaRadio.com.

2:11Somewhere out there is a Chevy truck. And the person who drives it, well, that's a Chevy person. You probably know one. Your buddy. Your sister. Ones who always show up. They're the first to rise, the last to leave. They always have that little extra something, and maybe you've got it too. Chevrolet, together let's drive. Visit chevy.com slash trucks to explore the lineup.

2:45Rach:Hello and welcome to the rest of the football daily brightness. we have finally reached the knockout stages of our Euro 2022 Rewind mini-series. If you haven't checked out the previous episodes on the group stages, feel free to go back to Daily Brightness and have a look at those before continuing. But Rach, take us back to that day after the Northern Ireland game. Yeah, I think that was a different one, wasn't it? Because I think in the group games, you've got to focus, haven't you? You've got three games. You know who you're playing against. You know when you're playing them. You can kind of drip feed information in as and when.

3:17Rach:but I think we had five days between Northern Ireland game and the Spain game and I think when we got to Spain we were like, obviously we've had the world charts we're following who we're going to get we always know on the world charts we're like oh we could get that or we could get that and I think we always say like if you want to be the best you've got to beat the best so I think we were all so excited for that game because it was like right, this is a huge test for us here this is going to be a massive, massive game but I think what was nice about that after that Northern Ireland game was we had a bit of time so where we had like maybe had two days in between to travel and whatever like there was five days and we obviously got after the Northern Ireland game like another family day and yeah you can talk you want to talk about what a family day looks like yeah so I think in the tournaments depending on where you are obviously every family day is different but what was really nice is you have like the option to either stay at the hotel like your family could come and use the games room or you could stay around the Lensbury or wherever you were or you could go out and have like if you've got your four hours you just you just go and go wherever um and I remember we went and met my family and we had like a little picnic in I don't even know what the park was called we just got an uber there yeah um but it was like really nice like we just literally went and escaped and just chilled and yeah it was just I swear the dogs were there as well yeah the dogs were there yeah they were there so it's just like a little bit of like normal life a little bit of home but without the chaotic side of the outside world and the hype and everything.

4:41Rach:But yeah, the family days were really, really important. I think it was a moment to appreciate what you'd already achieved and just a reminder of how good things were, but also what was yet to come. And just your family giving you that belief and that confidence and just a little checking really, because like you said, tournament football is extremely hard and tasking and mentally it can be very, very tough. but I do think having those five days really helps you, you know, kind of look at the success because we'd had an unbelievable group stage and we'd had some unbelievable results. But then also just like preparing yourself for like what's to come because now it's like business end, it's knockout stages.

5:21Rach:Yeah, and I think like I said, when you know what the three teams that you're playing against, you kind of have in your mind like what you're planning. But the next game is like it's just Spain. So I think what we always found worked well with us they never overloaded us with information did they so it wasn't like oh we've got a spare two hours here let's cram information and it was like short and sweet effective like information that details that we needed yeah um and drip feed those bits of information into like you know we'd review northern ireland and then we'd well we did that didn't we as soon as we played a game like x it off the next day didn't we box it off like review that game see how you've done what we need to work on for the next game, link it to Spain.

6:00Rach:And I remember that was so helpful because I think in the past we've had so many meetings, haven't we? Like in previous years, in previous tournaments, it was like refreshing to just only get the information that you needed as and when. So that was good leading up to it. I think we had a lot more time to actually like prepare for somebody like Spain, you need to prepare, don't you? So, but again, I think less is more sometimes with footballers, isn't it? I was just going to say, you can over-prepare and everyone can think, oh my God, we're playing Spain. let's go crazy on the analysis like let's like add even more pressure but actually it was a knockout game we're playing in the quarterfinal we've got Spain they were top team our preparation didn't change like it stayed the same no matter who we played that's what I mean because if they start to ramp up all that prep it's like oh now we need to panic there was no panic was there none at all I've never felt so calm going into them games all them games that was the feeling throughout the whole tournament though and it was just this like underlying like belief of like we're going to win but we never said it No, no one ever said that.

6:56Rach:It was just the way we acted. It was our body language. It was our actions on the pitch. It was just, I don't know, it's really, really hard to explain, but the lead-up was good. I remember everyone just been on it in training, no corners cut at all. We knew what we needed to do was all about feeling good, players just thriving in sessions. Whether you played, whether you started, whether you were a sub, everyone's energy was just like, we are going to win, but we keep it in-house. You know, I think I liked so much about like the Euros compared to like the World Cup was our base camp because the pitches on site, how much of a help was that?

7:33Rach:Yeah. Like everything was just like roll out in the morning, get your breakfast, do your wellness, whatever. Then you've got training and it wasn't like this, like I know this sounds really like whiny, but in a tournament, how hard is it to like get on the bus and go 25 minutes to training and then 25 minutes back and then you've got to wait for anyone to finish whatever they need to do. Do you remember that? In the World Cup, it was like, God, like, if someone wants to do 20 more minutes on the pitch and then they want to wait, you've got to wait for the bus. And I think that's where it was really good, I found, because it was, say, nice weather and we can watch the players that didn't play do their session and we were all, like, sort of together, but then, you know, you could leave as you want to leave.

8:15Rach:And I found that was honestly one of the most beneficial things that we had the pitch on site. It was so good. And for anyone listening, the Lensbury, basically, created as a pitch yeah so you come out the hotel and then you would literally walk like 100 meters and the pitch would be there you go a little bit further and then the gym was there and you'd finished like you said if if you wanted to do a little bit extra you'd just go we'd just go and do our ice baths and then crack on with our afternoon like we weren't waiting around for each other and you actually found by having that kind of set up a lot of people stayed and watched like the blowout which is really good because if you started and then you were watching the girls do a blowout like that's like the worst thing to do when like you want to play like everyone wants to play but only 11 players can start so we were all supporting the ones that didn't get as many minutes and they were like just smashing out the session and they really appreciated us being able to watch and it was just like such a good feel like it was just I think because we had the option of the freedom yeah it made it easier do you remember in the World Cup like obviously we were very fortunate enough to start but like we would go all the time and watch the non-starters trade but we would advise not to go take the bus journey yeah don't go yeah but we were like no we've done it before we want to do it we want to support the players and stuff like that but it was hard like getting up and getting in that bus and like travelling 30 minutes to go there so I think that was honestly underrated yeah the Lensbury was like the perfect they did it so well so well got it down so I hope they're doing that in Switzerland perfect environment did you just so people get a bit of a personal insight can you remember like your own preparation for the quarter final because I don't think we changed anything I don't think it changed I still think we were doing TikToks and crazy and shit like that.

9:48Rach:I don't think we changed. No, I don't think it changed. But we went back to the Amex again. Yeah. So I think we had that like a bit of excitement again. We went back to that hotel and there was just a lot of more familiarity with what we were doing, wasn't there? I don't think it changed for us at all. No. I actually remember going to that game and Demi had packets of scampi fries. Do you remember that? No. Do you remember that? You know pubs? Did you get them little scampi fries? Demi had them and I was like, oh, here's a pack of them. there well literally the day before the game like traveling down to the amex and i was like just sat munching on a pack of scampy fries that just sums up how chilled everyone i know but then when we stepped foot on the pitch we were like animals i know it's so weird when you actually like look back it's so like nostalgic but you think about things and you're like i didn't even think about that in the moment yeah and then what am i doing eating scampy fries i think you had some sweets like i think like we were just all like very nonchalant about it weren't we but then as soon as like game prep mode came it was like tunnel vision i do remember journaling though in that five day period I think when it was group stage it was a little bit harder for us to because you know what it's like when we journal I have to be in the right headspace to do it I have to actually have energy to sit down and kind of open myself up to be like I want to put this down whether it's good or bad because there's still things in tournaments where things will have annoyed me and I need to get it off my chest but I don't want to say it to anyone so I journal it but I do remember journaling a lot more in that five days and just like analysing the group stage things that did well like how it felt how I was feeling about going into like the quarterfinals playing against Spain everyone kind of talking about Spain and England have got Spain but we were like yeah it's England versus Spain I think that's like we spoke I remember speaking about that with you at the time because it was like oh we've done so well in the group games but like we could go home it is it's a harsh reality of like you're through or you're not yeah like we've done so well in the group stages like everyone's like oh they're doing so well and then it's like we could literally go home and we said that before every game didn't we we were like we could go home tonight like we're not going to but we would I think that was a bad thing though because I think you lay it out of what you can achieve also.

11:50Rach:None of us were like, all of us wanted to stay. Yeah. And I think that's another thing that we were all just like, oh girls, I'm not going home tonight. Like I'm not ready to leave everyone. Yeah, we were like, we'll be depressed, we're not going. Yeah. I'll tell you what we did do. I think it was me, you, Mido and Ellen. The sticker book. Oh shit, we did do the sticker book. Yeah, the Euros, Women's Euros sticker book. I've still got those, you know. Yeah, collected all the stickers, didn't we? I think I've got a completed one. I think we all completed it we were swapping every day we were swapping them stickers yeah with that little tin for all the stickers like they're like swapses like keep them to one side me too had a pile of that thing you've been buying them she was sharing off she could have filled up about three books the amount of stickers she had but we did complete the books that was sick by the end of it we've got to complete it that was like our little hobby in the afternoon wasn't it right then let's take a quick break and then we'll come back and discuss the game against Spain This episode is brought to you by Tinder.

12:46Rach:People think that dating is to just find the one, Mel, but I think there's so much more to it than that. We spoke about it before about, you know, you have a soulmate in life, but you have a soul best friend and you're my soul best friend, as you know. I don't think it should be looked upon as just a dating app. You might want just a companion or, you know, you could have an unexpected friendship blossom. I think it's quite small-minded just to think of it as, oh, I have to find like a, it's a relationship I'm looking for. Or like, no, you could find a friendship and that could be someone that you rely on for the rest of your lives.

13:15Rach:I think we've heard a lot of success stories from Tinder, from people in relationships and stuff. But like you said, it's not just about that. It's about you might not get on with them romantically, but they might become your best friend or someone that you can go to the pub with and have a drink with or go do a pub quiz with. So I think there is a lot of success behind that as well. It's not just finding the one. Yeah, as you say, Tinder is for all types of connections. And it works because on Tinder, a new relationship starts every three seconds from slow burners to instant sparks. Wherever it takes you, it starts with a swipe.

13:45Rach:Download Tinder today. Did you know that psoriatic arthritis may progress over time and could cause permanent joint damage if left untreated?

13:59Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away.

14:08Trimphia, Gucocumab, taken by injection, is a prescription medicine for adults with active psoriatic arthritis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms or need a vaccine. imagine being a million miles away explore the possibilities ask your doctor about trim fire tap this ad to see new joint data and learn more about trim fire including important safety information dirt sweat tears working hard can take its toll but your relief doesn't have to With Icy Hot original no-mess roll-on, you get maximum strength, fast-acting, mess-free pain relief.

15:05So you're ready to go again. Ice works fast. Heat makes it last. Icy Hot. You're so back. Learn more at IcyHot.com

15:21Rach:Welcome back to The Rest is Football, Daily Brightness. We are going to be talking about the quarterfinal against Spain. What a game. Yeah, that was a game. The night before the game went back to the same hotel, didn't we? So we had a nice time there and then everything was quite same, same. But I think there was a little bit, maybe a little bit more nervy going into that one because we were all a bit like knockout, like we said before. Knockout. We said everything to play for now. Spain are flying. They've had a good round. And I think when you get out there against Spain, it's always, always a tough game, no matter what, no matter when.

15:51Rach:The routine didn't change though. No, nothing. The morning of the game, everything stayed the same. We had our music on. We had our little get ready dancers. And then, you know, coach journey to the game, nothing changed. I think that's, again, for me personally, consistency is so important. Like on game days, tournaments, like keeping the same routine. It's like, don't do anything different. Invaluable. Like we didn't change anything. And although you could sense a little bit more like it felt like there was more to play for almost. So maybe that's where the nerves came in. But I still don't think it kind of like filtered into the group.

16:23Rach:I think you could just tell like if you needed to give someone a little arm around the shoulder, like you're ready to go like a little bit of positive then we knew we needed to do that equally some just need to be left alone listen to their music we were very good at reading each other yeah but still felt really confident like going into this game and if anything like you said like thriving like i feel like maybe on the outside everyone was still like yeah england we've got spain yeah yeah whereas we were like okay cool like bring it on let's go exactly and that game was intense wasn't it really intense like you have to be switched on like start to finish like Mentally, you have to be like, you know what?

16:55Rach:Normally, there's a break and you get the crowd going, no, it was just eyes on the prize. You cannot switch off against that sort of team. They are incredible. And it was the worst game of my life, performance-wise. I remember Del Castillo coming on, and she might as well have got my shorts, pulled them down, spun me around, and then said, sit on the floor for a minute while I go past you. And that is exactly what she did. Pulled my pants down, bestie. Do you remember that? I was like, oh, I've never been so embarrassed. This is in the moment where I was like, but you're not you're not a fullback no but this is a moment where I thought holy shit there's a lot more to defending than what I thought there was because I've relied on my athleticism for the whole my whole career in that position we spoke the whole tournament and I was like bloody hell Rachel you've done well at left back you've hardly played there obviously you've played there a lot but to do it against some of the best players in a major tournament and you were playing sick every game I did I'm not going to lie the clip did come up oh god I see it all the time you nearly got whiplash I forgot that it wasn't even whiplash like I think Like, honestly, I've never been so embarrassed, but I thought to myself, oh, I don't think I can do this position anymore.

17:59Rach:You actually started to caution yourself so much. She come on, she did all this little fancy footwork and then megged me and put me on my arse. And I was like, right, do you know what? Credit where credit's due. That was unbelievable. But also that was the moment where reality sank in and I was like, don't know. Don't know if I'm a defender. Don't know if I'm a defender. Don't know if I can do this. And I remember speaking to you after the game, didn't I and I was like obviously absolutely over the moon that we'd won I remember it might have even the next day I sat down with you at breakfast and I was like oh bestie I had a really bad game last night I was just like whatever you do just like just don't read into it yeah let it go let it go let it go I think it's worse when it's like a position that you're not like 100 % comfortable with like if I was playing up front and I didn't have a good game but like Rach that was shit yeah but I was like reading into everything like oh I can't do it like oh everyone's gonna think I'm shit but no so that was my own performance but obviously they scored first which was the first time we'd conceded the first time we'd gone one no down so that was like about that as well like scenarios like how would we deal with it because we'd had such a good run we'd not experienced like a lot of things and i remember the media they were asking those sorts of questions like oh you've not conceded yet how do you think you'll cope if you do and we just was like we have a plan and we'll execute it like the aim is obviously not to like concede but equally it's part of football and our mentality was just like, if it does, then we'll get back on track and we'll get another goal.

19:22Rach:I think because when we conceded, the weird thing for me was like, I never, ever, ever thought we were going to lose again. I've never had that before. But I genuinely had that feeling in my gut where I was like, we're not going to lose this game. There's no panic. No. But I remember being on the bench, I'd come off and I was with Ellen and I think I was on the pitch for when Tooney scored and then I think I'd come off, I think. And then I remember being like, oh God, this can't go too much for time. The girls are going to be on their arse. like it was a hard game i remember being on the bench with ellen and she was like gripping my thigh so tightly like i was like out but we were just so like oh my god like don't go pens like let's get through this like it's already been a long night like the girls are gonna be napped and i say that ball just fell to g's feet like you know that's going in you know that's flying in you were just watching it behind i was like keep driving keep driving get closer get closer she was going and going much in i was like oh don't keep going hit it hit it that's what we were doing we're Like, don't take another touch.

20:16Rach:But then you just, I just knew, like, as soon as she was driving and driving and driving, and that last touch out of her feet was like, bang, that's going in. Well, thank God Tooney scored to take us two extra time. And then I was like, even when it went extra time, I was like, okay, we're fit. Like, we're ready. We're ready to take on this. Like you said, there was no fear, was there? Constant, no. Like, no fear whatsoever. It was such a good game, though. It's like... The ending of that game was like, it was a bit of a sigh of relief, because we were like, right, we're through. Yeah, 100%. And that was a really taxing game.

20:43Rach:but equally it was like we're just expected to win like it was like that was the feeling it was like we're not going to lose I think that was a massive confidence boost of beating a team like Spain 100 % and like first time we conceded in the tournament first time going in extra time coming from behind and I think we ticked a lot off ready for like the semis which you know now once you get through the knockout like the quarters it only gets harder and harder yeah for sure the further you get the harder they get you know a little bit of fatigue sets in you've got to keep your mind on the game in front of you stop looking at the final or like we had to like keep everything in check but again i think it's stuff like that what did make us win the tournament we only ever looked at the team in front of us and the game in front of us and there's no point looking at the final because not made it there yet exactly and we kept reminding ourselves it's not worth anything unless we get there exactly all this hard work is just going to go to shit basically if we don't make the final so don't like stop now don't stop doing the right things and i remember we constantly like reminded each other of that yeah do your recovery properly eat properly if you're too tired to see family don't see them yeah like take a break and actually when did it get to that stage because it was still a little bit of covid and we made a decision that we weren't going to have any more no that was then because hannah got covid before the spain game yeah she didn't travel so we stopped having family days yeah it was yeah it was just so we'd had the family day after the northern island game and then after that we decided we've literally how many days was it i think when serena said to us you've got like 10 days change your life and then we all made a decision that all right nothing gets in the bubble nothing gets out it's the same for kind of family days so then we stopped having them and we was like right 10 days to change our lives and we found that hard i remember we were like so it was like a release wasn't it like your family day but equally we were all just on the same page where it's like nah like it was hard to remember some players really needed family days like you you know you weren't playing a lot of minutes you weren't starting you might not played at all and that family day was like your way of like resetting to be able to give back to the team so it was like it could have gone either way to be honest like it could have been good could have been a shitter.

22:36Rach:Worked out for the best, didn't it? Yeah, it was. But I absolutely loved that game. I just think it was so good. Loved it. Yeah, same. Loved it. I might have had the worst game of my career, bestie, but you had your best one. One of your best ones. You got a player of the match in that game. That must have been sick. Yeah, it was sick, but you know me, I hate individual stuff like that. Yeah, I know, but you're literally against Spain. You need to be defensively sound, which is what you were. And getting through into the semi-final and you get a player of the match, tag which I find centre-backs don't always get very often so it is quite like an honour.

23:07Rach:I think when you do get it as a centre-back it's really really special because like you said defenders kind of do get overlooked in that sort of like thing but for me I was just I didn't really take it until after the tournament you know that I actually got a player of the match like in a major tournament. I was gassed because I was just like oh my god shit we're in the semi-finals like we've just won we've just beat Spain we've just come back from behind like we've got extra time. I just remember us getting like a lot of pressure from the outside and I was just so drilled into almost like I went into protecting mode and I was like I'm going to do everything I can do every single game and it was just yeah I was buzzed and not going to lie it just gives you that little bit of a boost a little bit of confidence but I was just more over the moon that we'd got into the semis to be honest and we'd beat Spain because there was so much chat about it yeah it was really good keep shining boo keep shining boo but on that note that's all we've got time for today guys next time you will hear us talking about the semifinals goodbye from me goodbye from me

24:06I didn't like what you said, Odin pauses, about the future. This is the love story of real hinge couple Odin and Edward, written and read by me, Curtis Garner. Listen to the free audiobook now. This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files, and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting work mode available on Plus and Pro plans.

24:52The wild world of college football continues Labor Day weekend. On Saturday, East Carolina looks to shock Alabama, and Baylor and Auburn battle it out in Atlanta in the AFLAC kickoff game. Then, Clemson hits the road, looking to spoil Lane Kiffin's Death Valley debut. Sunday night, it's Louisville versus Ole Miss in Nashville in the inaugural Liberty Mutual Music City kickoff game. College football Labor Day weekend continues Saturday and Sunday on ABC and the ESPN app.