Preview: Team USA looks to go 3-0 in three days in Women’s World Cup

Sep 23, 2022 - 7:34 PM

Wizards Media Day is ongoing, but I didn’t have time to type until now because ... I’m a teacher y’all!

With Gabe and Marco at Capital One Arena, I’m focusing on things on the other side of the world with the FIBA Women’s World Cup. The USA Basketball women’s national team is playing China in a few hours, so here is the preview.

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Gametime: Saturday Sept. 24 12:30 a.m. ET (local time, it would be at 2:30 p.m.)

Where: Sydney, Australia

How to watch: ESPN Plus

What’s in store: The Americans are coming off a second win in two days, this time against Puerto Rico. This time, they will be playing against China, who have Chicago Sky center Li Yueru and New York Liberty center Han Xu. The Chinese are 2-0 in group play after wins against Korea and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I’m not sure how Team USA will look with Kelsey Plum, Chelsea Gray and A’ja Wilson now with the team after celebrating their WNBA championship. What I anticipate is that Ariel Atkins will continue to play major minutes as a defensive specialist. Shakira Austin on the other hand, will likely see less playing time. That said, her 19 point, 10 rebound double double performance vs. Puerto Rico was really good indeed! Hopefully Head Coach Cheryl Reece can keep finding her some minutes against Li and Xu, the taller Chinese posts!

About China

• Capital: Beijing
• Population: 1.41 billion
• National Anthem: 义勇军进行曲 (Pronounced Yìyǒngjūn Jìnxíngqǔ) (March of the Volunteers)

• Official Language: Mandarin
• Most notable companies from China: The biggest company from a global perspective is ecommerce giant Alibaba. After, it’s ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, or Douyin locally.
• What is a popular song by Chinese artists? I am not familiar with Chinese music charts, partly because they use different social media platforms than America. According to Shazam, “By Your Side (在你的身边) by Jason Sheng (盛哲) was No. 2. The video was made last winter, so I’m not sure how accurate it is.

Day 2 final scores

• Serbia 69, Japan64
• Belgium 84, Korea 61
• China 98, Bosnia and Herzegovina 51
• Canada 59, France 45
• Australia 118, Mali 58