How will China match up against USA in their first matchup of the 2026 World Cup?
Yahoo Sports' Caroline Fenton and women's basketball writer Cassandra Negley are joined by Richard Cohen, women's basketball analyst and writer for Her Hoops Stats, to preview the upcoming Team USA vs. Team China matchup. Catch the full conversation on the "Hoops 360" podcast, and subscribe on Apple podcasts , Spotify , YouTube, or wherever you listen. *Disclaimer: Some World Cup rosters were not fully finalized during the time of recording.
Video Transcript
The US opens against China on Friday, and when we first started this conversation, we talked about short practice times for the US, teams are closing in.
China, to your point, does seem like a team that can really give them a run for their money.
What are we expecting out of Friday?
Because I think it's, I think it's going to be a lot closer, at least for a while, than people might expect it to be.
It's certainly possible.
Yeah, I think sometimes the US just overwhelm teams, you know, run them off the floor with the amount of talent or, you know, Clark hits three threes in the first quarter and, you know, everyone relaxes because they're up 10 or 15.
But yeah, certainly if China hang around early on, then the US could start getting nervous.
You know, they, they might not be able to play everyone, you know, 'cause most, most US games in group stages, you end up with everyone playing like 19 minutes on the entire roster because you can do what you like, do what you like with the rotation.
We'll see if Lawson's already ready to, to go to, like the players she wants to play as, as a core rotation.
But I think, I think the US will, will rotate, will try to put in different units.
We'll see whether sort of Lawson goes with team units, you know, whether Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray play together a lot, whether Boston plays with Clark a lot.
I've, I've always thought that US coaches should lean on those sorts of relationships more than they do.
Cheryl Reeve didn't do it that much the last time around with these tournaments.
But yeah, I think that's something we might see them go to, especially early when you don't have the built-in You know, Lawson might not have been able to put in much of her own stuff to that point, so if team-- so if players already have chemistry, why not use it?
Yeah.
Cass and I, I talked about that when we were talking about some of the, the reserves that were coming in, for A'ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum.
Didn't think it was necessarily coincidence that Kiki Iriaufin and Sonia Citron, teammates in Washington, were, were chosen, as the reserves
