BERLIN – With the World Cup stage set in Berlin, WNBA players turned into FIFO workers just days out of the competition. It’s a challenge every nation has had to navigate, but there was an added weight for Belgium, especially Julie Vanloo. As per this FIBA article, “Vanloo was also grieving the loss of her godfather and mentor, who passed away just days before the tournament tipped off.”
This has countless implications, with this photo from media day telling you everything you need to know, not only about this Belgium team, but their story.
They have provided basketball fans with one of the richest viewing experiences through this generation which has been a perfect storm.
Emma Meesseman is the ultimate big. Every part of the game is a strength for Meesseman and she ostensibly has no weaknesses. The worst part for opposing teams is that she’s programmed to make the right play on every possession, so even if you do think she has a weakness, she won’t let it be uncovered, and she does it all on her terms.
Kyara Linskens is the modern big. She can stretch the floor, protect the rim and offers size, mobility and is technically sound. Having a good big next to Meesseman could go oh so wrong, and Linskens ensures it goes oh so right.
Antonia Delaere is the perfect segue from the front court to the back court with a versatile skillset. She can do a bit of everything and has the basketball IQ to let her pull whatever lever is necessary in any given moment. Often the unsung hero that can fill in the gaps while the other four starters are producing.
Julie Allemand is the archetypal point guard. What timing too, as she is now the all time leader for World Cup assists. She leapfrogged Australian Kristi Harrower and American Dawn Staley in a matchup against Puerto Rico. 16 hours later, Belgium had a matinee session against Australia where Allemand breezed past American Sue Bird and Spaniard Laia Palau.
Julie Vanloo, the ideal off guard. You want your two-guard to playmake off your point guard and consistently produce magic. It’s a huge ask that innately comes with variance. These are human beings, it’s unfair to expect game breaking plays as part of the job description, but Vanloo stands in the face of that, even through grief.
The fact that each of these five play in different positions is unifying. Depth has often been highlighted as Belgium’s weakness, but Maxuella Lisowa Mbaka and Nastja Claessens have solved this issue for head coach Mike Thibault. The Massey twins Billie and Becky have provided critical minutes in the front court when Meesseman and Linskens have gone to the bench.
The Cats have won the past two editions of EuroBasket in 2023 and 2025, sandwiching their bronze medal match defeat against the Australian Opals at the 2024 Olympics. The time is now for Belgium, and hardware at a worldwide competition is next in their sights. They just swept their group handily, only trailling the Aussies after the first basket of the game. Meesseman tied the score at 2, then Allemand drilled a three 30 seconds later. Belgium would hold the lead for the remainder of the game.
After Belgium’s win against Puerto Rico, she assured The IX Sports that the Cats weren’t viewing the game against Australia as a rematch:
“First of all I think it’s a very different team. I was looking at the game and there was a lot of unfamiliar faces for me, so I don’t think it’s the same team. They have the same key players, of course, and the same coach. It was kind of the same circumstances, less than 24 hours between games. So it’s not totally in our hands the way we recover. But, I don’t think we’re gonna call this a revenge game or something, because it’s two different teams.”
It was cutting honesty from Meesseman, who is always generous with her time and responses with the media. When asked about this, she first joked. “I thought it was obligated.”
She then uncovered, “I mean I think it goes both ways. We bring the results and then you guys have to show it to the media so we get all these fans to Berlin. I think that’s the result of all these years of us showing to the people what we can do and you guys bringing it into the media.”
In one response, she captured everything about her personality and her nation. Holistic, understanding, humble, interconnected, and fun. She shared her report card on her team after their first two wins against Turkey and Puerto Rico:
“For us we just have to maybe look more to our game instead of letting the opponent dictate what kind of flow that we’re in, what kind of tempo that we want to play. Today was kind of sloppy in terms of timing, details. We got the job done though, so I can be happy. We know European style like Turkey is matching us better because we’re used to it, then Puerto Rico is coming all aggressive and physical, so I think that’s going to be a great matchup for them tomorrow. But yeah, we can’t really think back too much on these two games because our turnaround is coming fast against Australia tomorrow.”
That assessment of sloppy in terms of timing and details plays right into Australia’s hands, and right into Meesseman’s next response:
“Just find our tempo. We can’t look too much at them to determine what kind of mindset we have. We have to be aggressive. We know we have to be physical against them and play fast. So, I think we just want to play our beautiful basketball.”
And they did. The Opals are no easy match, but Belgium made the game look easy for themselves. They set the tempo, got their offense humming and didn’t let Australia defend. They got up and down the court with more ease than the Opals, scoring 10 points off turnovers while Australia had five. Belgium won every stat category and held their foes to 3-17 shooting from deep, good for 17.7%. Long shots lead to long rebounds, and Belgium had a 40-33 advantage on the glass. Every part of their game lead into the next. It was a comprehensive, ubiquitous, holistic win. It was a statement win.
Australian Opals head coach Sandy Brondello told The IX Sports why she thought the Cats were able to steer the game from the jump:
“Belgium are very experienced, they’ve played together for so long. I coach Julie Allemand in Toronto, she led the team great. I think Emma responded from a quieter game last night but she’s one of the best bigs in the world. I think their experience just showed through.
“We fought, I think we continued to fight. There were just certain things, we’d get close and then they’d make a big three, just a timely thing. Or we overplayed and gave them an easy basket. They’re simple breakdowns, that’s just a mindset and that’s the mentality we have to lean into with this short turnaround.”
Steph Talbot echoed this with The IX Sports: “Yeah, I agree. Their experience and their chemistry, particularly on the offensive end really showed. We want to be the best defensive team in the world and they won that battle tonight. We missed shots we would probably normally make, a lot of layups, a lot of foul shots that maybe would have had the game a little bit closer. But they definitely beat us at what we want to be good at.”
And Meesseman saw the bigger picture while also celebrating these wins, as co-opted by the Opals, along the way.
“We know that we have that connection, it’s just a matter of bringing it onto the court. And we came all together late in the preparation so we knew that we had to grow during the tournament. I do hope that this was the right step into that direction. But it’s not finished, I know that we can do a lot better but it felt good to have those moments of real connection.”
Among the top end of the competition, only Belgium and France have sustained their play style and connection for 120 minutes. France’s wins have been more emphatic, but Belgium has found themselves against tougher opponents. This could either be conditioning Belgium, or illustrating just how far ahead of the competition France are, which will be seen in the next week.
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Allemand becoming the all time leader in World Cup is another thing that needs to be celebrated along the way. She’s currently at 111 assists, with Laia Palau at 108. The significance of this is that she has at least one more game to play in this World Cup, and probably two more World Cups to follow. That is, of course, aside from the obviously amazing feat of being the number one person in the entire world at anything, as well as the names that are now behind her.
Brondello was gracious and emphatic with her words for her Toronto Tempo point guard:
“I chose Julie as the first pick in the expansion draft for a reason, because I think she’s the kind of player that you want to build around. She plays the game the right way, she plays at both ends of the floor. She’s a pass first point guard. In Toronto I give her the green light to shoot more and she still doesn’t shoot that much. She’s unselfish. Just the chemistry she has with those teammates. She’s like a conductor out there, putting Em in the right spots and making the right plays time after time. I’m obviously a big fan and I’m happy she’s on the Tempo. I wasn’t a fan tonight though”
It seems everyone but Allemand wants Allemand to shoot more, as she was relayed Sandy’s words by way of The IX Sports in the press conference. She rolled her eyes and said, “yeah, everyone, I know that,” followed by a smile and a laugh. But she would share her reflections on her accomplishment:
“It means a lot to me because that’s who I am, I’ve been like this since I was young. Everyone was always telling me ‘shoot the ball’ but I think this is just who I am.”
This wasn’t the end of Allemand’s response, just when coach Thibault interrupted, “I still tell her that.” Through a laugh, Allemand protested, “I’m getting better though, right?” She continued:
“I’m just proud because, also for Belgium because this is how we play, we’re so unselfish. I’m just happy to have that one, it’s a special one, especially when you look at the names next to me. So a big one but really proud for Belgium right now.”
After Belgium’s victory against Puerto Rico, coach Thibault shared the following thoughts with The IX Sports on what would be key in the early game against Australia:
“The biggest key is that we have matchups that are kind of similar at each position. Can we, defensively, win some individual matchups even though it’s a collective. Can we, in transition, keep them in front of us and make them have to play in the half court.
“We’re gonna see a lot of different things defensively. We’re gonna have to, like today, adjust a little bit to how they play. I’m not gonna give away our keys to the game tomorrow. But clearly we’re going to have to play a little bit better offensively against their defence. We can’t afford to have some empty possessions against them.”
They did exactly that, and probably nailed the keys he wasn’t going to give away as well. After the game against Australia, he went through the rubric with The IX Sports:
“Well, part of it starts last night when we finished the game. The mindset of our team is that we celebrate a win every time but we knew we could play a lot better. And then you have a short turnaround. We can use that as an excuse or you can use it as motivation. We got together as a group last night, we watched about 15, 20 minutes of film. Hopefully they got enough sleep and recovery and nutrition and those sorts of things. Then we had another 15 minute film session this morning and that was the total of our preparation.
“But our preparation comes way before that. It comes in daily habits. It comes in that we’re an unselfish team so we’re willing to make the next play for somebody else. So you can prepare a little bit easier for a team when you have some basic concepts offensively that you wanna do. And then you have to be not afraid of the moment. You have to be willing to play in big moments. I think that our team is starting to figure out that we can be really good in all of these moments. These are tough games. We have a lot ahead of us still, we haven’t really accomplished anything for what we wanna do. But I think our mindset is becoming very more laser focused right now.”
There’s a tonne of growth in a short amount of time, as well as the experience that they have strung together over multiple European and worldwide competitions. Their key players have all been getting better and reaching new heights individually, then bringing it all together for their country. Antonia Delaere spoke with The IX Sports on how the added WNBA experience for her and their whole starting lineup has cotinued to propel them:
“I think Emma cleared, a little bit, the way for us. She also let us kind of dream for going to the WNBA because before that we didn’t have that many players. So also for me, I never thought I could be there, but for me, for until now, it’s been a wonderful experience. I’m super happy and grateful with the team I’m in. They’re amazing players but also amazing people. We have Chloe Bibby in our team. So yeah, I think it’s a great experience for all of us and it’s also helping our national team to become better.”
She must have been able to hint an accent in the mixed zone. Delaere got further into the details as to how it has helped Belgium.
“In the WNBA everything is so much faster. So I think in everything that you do defensively, offensively, you need to think quicker. You need to shoot quicker. So I think that’s definitely something that I’m learning, and I’m still learning. And I think, yeah, just for all of us, you’re playing every day against the best players of the world. So even if you’re not on the court, you’re seeing them. You’re also learning from them, so it’s just a super nice learning experience”
There’s also a bit of time for fun, which helps bring the Belgian players closer to one another off the court and, in turn, help them on it. When Delaere visits a city with another Belgian player, she makes sure to catch up.
“It’s really fun. Because then you know somebody in the other city, you can [catch up] so it’s good to see people that you know. Especially because the schedule is so heavy with all the games. So it’s nice to see sometimes some familiar faces.”
Belgium’s group is tight. They feel everything together, so when the devastating news found its way to Vanloo, they felt it as a team. Vanloo spoke with FIBA about the importance of her national team through her trying times:
“It’s unbelievable how much peace they bring me. All credit to the Belgian Cats. It’s unbelievable how much support I feel from them.”
She then had a message for her godfather.
“I know he’s watching me from a different place. He’s following me.” And added: “It’s for him. It’s for my family at home, who can’t be here. We’re not ready yet. I’m not ready myself.”
After their first win against Turkey, Meesseman was announced as the player of the game, an award she rerouted to Vanloo. In the interview, Meesseman said:
“Well, you kind of know that it was a really hard time for her. She lost somebody in her family, so for her to be able to do that, I’m just very happy for her. To feel that we support her in every single thing.”
Meesseman then continued: “I’m glad that we get the threes from her. It’s just happy to see her smile on the court again.”
There’s something bigger brewing in Belgium. While other nations are lacking experience, polish, continuity, preparation and strong challenges in the group phase, Belgium have them in spades. They have a roster of people who are willing, wanting and able to make plays and take risks.
This World Cup has broken in an interesting way. The US found out that they would be without A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum close to the tournament and have one of their most inexperienced teams in a while. Australia is in a similar situation. France hasn’t really been questioned yet. Having a challenge present itself to them in a final might leave them ill-prepared. Spain lost to Mali.
Some things just make sense, and one of those things would be Belgium adding hardware to their trophy cupboard this World Cup.
