BERLIN – On Sunday, the FIBA World Cup match everyone had anticipated arrived. Most experts and fans predicted France and the U.S. would face off in the gold medal match. Some framed it as a rematch of the gold medal game at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but the U.S. assured that they weren’t viewing it as such.
“Less than half of the players on our team were at that Olympic game, and more than half of their players were at that game. But like, that’s over, you know what I mean?” U.S. captain Breanna Stewart told reporters after her country’s semifinal win over Spain. “We won that game. That game is over. This is a completely new game tomorrow. … This is one game to win the gold medal in the World Cup in Berlin, and that’s our entire focus.”
French guard Leila Lacan echoed a similar sentiment about how much has changed when she was asked specifically about facing the US in the gold medal match in Berlin after their meeting in Paris two years ago.
“Yes, (revenge) can provide a boost of energy,” she said. “That said, we aren’t going into it looking for revenge. The squad is different; it’s a new competition. We’ve all evolved and changed since the Games. The goal is to keep doing what we’ve been doing from the start.”
France head coach Jean Aime Toupane chimed in on whether or not his group was feeling the revenge:
“Yes, but I don’t think we should approach it that way. We need to approach it the right way and try to find the means, or at least the solutions, on the court. I have no doubt that the players are motivated and will remain determined to achieve this goal. As for us, the staff and everyone else, we’re going to work on finding a few ‘tricks,’ as they say, to try and field the best possible team.”
Even though both teams downplayed the storyline of an Olympic rematch, the energy was there when the two sides faced off in the World Cup final.
It’s a fairly newly formed US team that Les Bleues were coming up against. Both of these nations faced up against Hungary, and after the US blew them out in their quarterfinal, Hungarian head coach Peter Volgyi said the following in his press conference about a potential meeting between the two nations:
“France has more team chemistry, at least we felt that on defense especially. But on the individual level US is obviously better so it will be unique matchup for the coaches as well.”
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A man of few words hit the nail on the head. What was true two years ago and true heading into the tournament was still true to a nation that had faced both the US and France. This French team is walking around with a air of confidence and both Dominique Malonga and Gabby Williams spoke about this with The IX Sports. First was Malonga, ahead of the competition:
“It’s really great. I mean, it’s great talent but also, great people, I think we really want to be good together. We’re really great competitors and winning is really important for us. I think that’s what differentiates our group from others. It’s just like, we will do whatever needs doing. And I think that’s what you need in these kind of tournaments. So, yeah, I think it’s just a really great squad, great basketball, we’re doing amazing things on the floor, on both ends of the floor. And so, I’m just really glad to be part of that.”
Then Williams after their blowout win against Hungary:
“I think it comes from trust. I think it comes from knowing that we have a deep team. We have a deep roster, we have a good bench, so it’s always [that] next woman up mentality. I think there’s also a confidence in knowing I can play as hard as I can for these five minutes because I know someone else is going to come in and they’re gonna match my intensity. And so that’s what comes with a lot of trust. So I think that’s where we find our strength.”
For a brief history lesson, France have medaled at every EuroBasket dating back to 2009, sans 2025, when Gabby Williams, Marine Johannes and Dominique Malonga didn’t suit up for WNBA reasons. In 2009, they won gold, the last time they tasted gold at a EuroBasket, Olympics or World Cup. At the Olympics, France have played for a medal in each of the last four, coming away with two silver medals, one bronze and one fourth place finish.
This was the first time France made the gold medal match at the World Cup. The US are infamously on an eight World Cup winning streak. After France’s semifinal win, Marine Johannes tried to find her words diplomatically, but eventually told ESPN’s Alexa Philippou:
“Well, if I’m honest, like, we have nothing to lose. We know they are a great team. They won every World Cup for years and years. They are really talented, we all know that. We are playing with this kind of player, actually, all season in the W. We know how good they are. But again it’s one game [and we have] nothing to lose. We are going to play hard and we’ll see what happens.”
The fun tidbit about this response from Johannes is that she wasn’t asked about the US team even though she eluded to them in her response. At the point of the quote, Spain and the US had yet to face off, so a Spain win could have come back to bite France, but Johannes assumed rightly. After the game, Valeriane Ayayi and Dominique Malonga were aligned in their mentality. First, Malonga told Emmet Ryan of BallinEurope:
“It feels amazing [to be in the gold medal game]. I mean that’s what we wanted to do and now we know that we have one more. We want to go get it and it’s arm length away now.”
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Then Ayayi spoke with Cesare Milanti of FIBA:
“The first feeling would be like one more. We know why we came, we know what we want to do, we know how we’ve struggled. So yeah, the first thought is one more. Of course, we’re gonna enjoy the moment because this is important as well. But, yeah, one more.”
After decades of good French basketball, they currently have their best chance of gold at a major tournament. The stage was set for a gold medal bout, and partly due to a hotly contested battle between Germany and Spain for bronze. They gave Berlin Arena a show in front of a near sell out crowd, just 363 people short. This was Germany’s second worst crowd of the competition.
Historically, the thinking in basketball has been America, then the rest of the world. Then it was America, the next tier down (Spain, France, Australia et al.) and the rest of the world. Germany, from the rest of the world category, just played against Spain for a medal. Those lines are blurring, not just for the US, but the whole world. Soon enough, it will feel like anyone could beat anyone on any given night. German head coach Olaf Lange spoke about the gap closing with The IX Sports after the game:
“We beat Mali, Korea, Japan, we were playing really well. And then Belgium, we match up really well and we played really well. So that’s the team we can beat. But the next level, the top level, USA, Spain, France, and we can’t forget Australia, Australia had a lot of injuries, they are the top four. That’s what we are knocking on [the door of] these level teams and that’s the gap we have to close. I think we are right there at the moment.”
From the perspective of France, this could be seen as a cautionary message from Germany. And the fact that it’s the German coach saying that, rather than a country like China or Japan who have been near that tier of talent in recent times, shows just how much basketball is growing. These countries aren’t slowing down, and why would they?
Germany’s semifinal started to look out of reach in the third quarter, after Spain started the term on a 13-3 run. The most impressive part of Germany’s night was that they fought back within striking distance by the end of the third quarter and gave themselves a chance to win. Another positive trendline for basketball is, in the past, when a superior basketballing nation would start to build their lead, it would feel as though they could run off this momentum alone to blow the game out of reach. In the fourth, however, Spain did make this separation insurmountable.
For anyone following Iyana Martin’s journey throughout the World Cup:
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But the bronze medal match was a whole team effort. In the postgame press conference, Spanish head coach Miguel Mendez said the following in his opening statement:
“What to say. Just congratualtions to the Germany team. They grew during the tournament. They play very good basketball. Congratualtions to Olaf [Lange] and the staff. I’m very happy with my team, with the young one’s, with the not young players, with everybody. We did a very good job during the tournament. We played good basketball. I’m very happy with my team.”
This was the perfect backdrop to France’s game against the U.S. The stadium was packed, with Pau Gasol, Lauren Jackson, and Dirk Nowitzki treated to front row seats, in that order. Not much would separate these nations early, with both teams likely happy and unhappy with the first quarter. Early in the second, France got their lead to nine points off an Ayayi three, which would lead to an important possession. Would the US get the difference back to seven, or would they risk France stretching the lead more.
After a well defended play, Rhyne Howard missed everything on a mid ranger, then France came down and made good on a stepback jumpshot from Carla Leite, extending the lead to 11 and forcing Kara Lawson to call a timeout. This sequence was critical as it was a clear marker for the game being on France’s terms. After the timeout, called with eight minutes and 14 seconds remaining in the first half, France would extend the lead to as much as 14. From that point it was a matter of the US playing as they have all tournament, grinding their opposition down slowly but surely.
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Unfortunately for the people pitting Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese against each other, they actually work really well together. Not only have they had great synergy all tournament long, they have done their job for coach Lawson when called upon. With 29 seconds to go in the first half, Reese subbed in for Aliyah Boston. Reese got a defensive stop. Then, with 6.7 seconds remaining, Clark subbed in for Reese. Clark hit a three, which made the halftime score 45-43 for France.
After the game, coach Lawson spoke with The IX Sports on this sequence and her players abilities to continually make these huge plays:
“That second quarter is probably my favorite quarter of the game. I’ll go back and watch it and see, maybe the third one might be good too. But the second I think because we had such a resilient mindset and it’s difficult when you’re scuffling a little bit trying to find the rhythm of the game and they were so hot from three. I mean 8-14 in the first half and we just didn’t allow it to change our aggressiveness. We didn’t allow it to change our confidence and we had talked about that before the game, just stay confident. They’re so good it’s going to go their way some of the time. And yeah, big momentum changing three for C, you know, right before halftime and we just felt it at halftime, we really did. We felt like we could push the gas pedal down to the floor and get away from them.”
As for the halftime message on the French side, coach Toupane said:
“What I told my players at half time, the second quarter wasn’t good, [but] we were still up by two. So that was a positive side of those two first quarters. But just tell them just what we were talking about on the game plan. Don’t let them run the floor, be good on the rebounds. But [the US] play well. We tried, we tried. We couldn’t do it.
“But maybe I could try a little bit [of] zone, press. We saw what we did earlier. But anyway, we played against a good team. So we’re going to learn from this. That’s the most important thing for me. This is our first experience at this level here. I think team USA has been like how many times now? So they have the experience.”
At the start of the second half, the US quickly took the lead back. This stretch in the second quarter and into the start of the third might have been recognised by the in-arena DJ who played What’s The Difference by Dr. Dre. That was the difference between the US and France. France can take leads, the US can snuff them. Beyond that, the ability for the US to call on their bench situationally to make crucial plays in high pressure situations remains a luxury only they can call on.
After the game, Stewie spilled the beans on what Lawson told the team at half time, even though Lawson was reticent to lend this insight:
“[Coach Lawson] said, well, we talked about defensive lapses for sure. And then she said France might stay with us for three quarters, but by the time we get to that fourth quarter, we’re going to be able to bust this thing open. And little did we know, it came in the third quarter. But we had belief behind that. We kind of addressed the problems at hand and we were ready to get back out there and fight and put it all out there for the last 20.”
With a sheepish look on her face, and through a laugh, Lawson responded to Stewie, “I wasn’t trying to tell them what I said.”
“Oh really?” Stewie questioned while everybody in the room laughed. “Well that’s what she said. You’ll see it in all access.”
France leaves with a silver medal. Oddly at these tournaments, winning bronze is always a better feeling than silver in the moment, it’s only in the days, months and years to come that the silver medal starts to speak for itself. Gabby Williams opened up about this with The IX Sports:
“Yeah, maybe in a few days it’ll feel better, of course. We’re disappointed right now, but I think we’re showing little by little, like, France is a basketball country. That was my goal when I joined this team was to change the culture. Obviously we have higher expectations but we’ll get there.”
From the Olympics to the World Cup, it might be seen as a step back for France, or it might not. Alexia Chery and Iliana Rupert were unavailable for them during the World Cup, those are enormous minutes to make up for in the front court. Every nation faced injury issues, possibly none more infamous than gold medalist team USA who were without the services of A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum which they found out about just days before the tournament. But this also tells the story of depth and talent, the US replaced them with two WNBA All-Star’s, France, nor any other nation, has that luxury.
The other thing that France had, or didn’t have, in this World Cup was a challenge. A proper tough fought contest to condition them for a gold medal match against the US. Their toughest opponent was Germany, who they beat by 22 points in the semifinal. The US went through a gauntlet, with Italy and Spain the two most notable opponents in this regard.
With all of that said, it’s hard to be at the top, unless you’re the US. France, Spain and Australia have oft oscillated between two and four, with cameos from China sprinkled in, as well as Belgium’s run over the past decade. In the past, Yugoslavia and Russia, or the USSR, were at the top level, but those are no longer competing countries, which further represents the rarity of success at the top level.
Germany took themselves to the last day of play and their sparring partners in the bronze medal match, Spain, are at the beginning of a new era. Japan could come with a flurry of three pointers at the next World Cup, since they are hosting and the last host nation to not make a medal match was back in 2002. The usual suspects will return, there’s no chance Australia could have as bad injury luck moving forward, could they?
France lost by one point to the US in the Paris Olympics gold medal match in 2024. They breezed through the World Cup up until facing the US again. The rest of the world is getting better and the top end is re-establishing itself. It’s not to say that France won’t be able to capture an ever elusive gold medal, but their best chances might be behind them.
Les Bleues were able to establish a context in which it was them and the US at the pinnacle of basketball. That window could very well be closed in LA 2028. Spain will be better, Australia will be healthier, Germany could bring the same team plus Satou Sabally. The US brought a huge amount of youth to Berlin and captured a gold medal, now they know what goes into that. It might not be that France gets worse, everyone else might just have caught up.
