Team USA Rattled by Italy in World Cup Clash
For nearly two decades, the FIBA Women’s World Cup has been Team USA’s private domain. Gold after gold, win after win, opponents usually arrive knowing the script.
Italy clearly didn’t read it.
On Sunday in Berlin, the Italians clawed their way into a game that was supposed to be a routine group-stage stroll, turning it into a grind that exposed just how fragile even a dynasty can look when the shots stop falling and the paint turns into a traffic jam.
This was billed as a continuation of the Americans’ march toward a fifth straight World Cup title, especially after a 94-61 demolition of China in the opener. Instead, it became a reminder: this version of Team USA is new, still learning each other, and very much human.
A defensive slugfest from the opening tip
The game never settled into the free-flowing showcase many expected. From the opening minutes, it was a defensive street fight.
USA won the tip, and Chelsea Gray got them on the board first with a jumper. That was the easy part. Every possession after that came with a price.
Italy dug in, bodies flying over screens, hands everywhere. By the midway point of the first quarter, each team had already recorded two steals. It wasn’t pretty, but it was honest basketball: 11-6 to the U.S. with four minutes left in the opening period, and every point felt earned.
Kara Lawson’s “young and turnt” group responded with depth. Nine different Americans scored in the first quarter as the rotation rolled in waves. Paige Bueckers led the early scoring with just four points, a stat that said more about balance than dominance. Team USA closed the quarter up 18-8, fueled by pressure defense that forced Italy into eight turnovers and just 21% shooting. Jasmine Keys, with four points, was the lone Italian bright spot.
It looked, briefly, like the usual script might still hold.
Angel Reese sets the tone, Italy refuses to fade
The second quarter told a different story.
Angel Reese stepped on the floor and immediately left fingerprints all over the game. Within three minutes, she had a steal and two blocks, patrolling the lane like a veteran on her third World Cup, not a young star feeling her way through her first. Team USA as a whole turned the defensive screws, racking up six steals and four blocks by the 6:45 mark of the second quarter.
But the offense? That’s where the problems started.
Italy packed the paint, cut off driving lanes and dared the Americans to beat them from the perimeter. Team USA couldn’t answer. The threes that fell so easily against China — 12 of them on Sept. 4 — simply weren’t there. By late in the half, the U.S. was still searching for its first triple, stuck at 0-for-9 from deep.
The misses gave Italy life. The Americans’ once double-digit lead began to fray.
Cecilia Zandalasini, already circled in red on every USA scouting report, found her rhythm. The Golden State Valkyries wing, coached in the WNBA by USA assistant Natalie Nakase, started to bend the game. She scored, drew fouls, and dragged Italy’s offense forward almost by force. By the 4:15 mark of the second quarter, Italy had slashed what had been a 19-8 U.S. lead down to 26-20, riding a 14-3 run with Zandalasini up to nine points.
The Americans, shooting just 33% from the field at that stage, looked stuck. Italy, at 31%, wasn’t exactly lighting it up either, but the momentum had shifted.
Halftime tension: errors, foul trouble, and a six-point margin
Team USA limped into halftime up 30-24, a scoreline that felt more warning light than cushion.
The lead had ballooned to double digits multiple times. Each time, Italy punched back. Over the final 6:45 of the half, the Italians outscored the U.S. 14-6, capitalizing on American turnovers and missed open looks. Lawson didn’t sugarcoat it in her halftime assessment.
“We're just making too many errors. We're making too many mistakes,” she said, noting that Italy was playing “with great force” and forcing the U.S. into “a lot of unforced errors.”
Reese led the Americans at the break with six points, two blocks, a steal and the kind of edge that kept them afloat. Three other players sat on four points apiece, but no one had seized the game offensively. It was depth without a clear star turn.
Italy had its own problem, though. Zandalasini, the best player on the floor in stretches, already carried three fouls. With FIBA’s five-foul limit, her availability became a ticking clock. Italy needed her aggression; it also needed her on the floor.
The tension on both benches was obvious. One side wrestling with its own standard, the other daring to believe.
Italy swings in front as USA goes ice cold
The third quarter opened with another twist.
At the 7:31 mark, Napheesa Collier picked up her third foul, and Rhyne Howard checked in for her. Collier, a former Defensive Player of the Year and one of the anchors of this new-look roster, had to retreat to the bench. For a team already struggling to find offensive rhythm, losing a stabilizing presence stung.
Then came the moment that would have been almost unthinkable at tip-off.
With 5:32 left in the third, Italy led 33-32.
This was not a fluky burst. The U.S. had gone stone cold, missing seven straight field goals. The paint remained jammed, drives swallowed up by Italian bodies, and the perimeter was a desert: 0-for-9 from three and no sign of that changing.
Italy, which had led for only 42 seconds earlier in the game, suddenly had belief and a scoreboard to match it. Their defensive pressure rattled the Americans, cut off angles, and turned the game into exactly what the underdog wanted — a scrap, not a showcase.
A powerhouse under pressure
All of this unfolded against the backdrop of a tournament that began with sky-high expectations and a very clear target on the Americans’ backs.
Team USA arrived in Berlin as the four-time defending World Cup champion, unbeaten in the competition since 2006. They opened Group D by tearing through China. Caitlin Clark posted a 14-point, 11-assist double-double in that win, setting a U.S. World Cup record for assists in a game. Rhyne Howard and Paige Bueckers added 14 points each. It looked effortless.
They had already handled Italy once this year, too — a 93-59 blowout in Puerto Rico on March 14 in World Cup qualifying, when Kahleah Copper led the way with 15 points and five Americans hit double figures. That game felt like a preview of what this group stage might be.
But this World Cup is different. A’ja Wilson, the MVP of the 2022 tournament, and five-time All-Star Kelsey Plum were both ruled out just days before the event for health reasons. Lawson was blunt on Sept. 1: there was no time to worry about who wasn’t here. Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen stepped in, and the message shifted to chemistry, growth, and making this team whole on the fly.
Veterans like Breanna Stewart, Gray and Collier share the floor now with headline-making young stars — Clark, Bueckers, Reese — under a coaching staff led by Lawson with assistants Nakase, Nate Tibbetts and Stephanie White. The talent is undeniable. The cohesion is still catching up.
That’s what Italy exploited.
A group that suddenly feels wide awake
Group D was supposed to be straightforward. The United States, Czech Republic, Italy and China, with the Americans the heavy favorite to finish top and cruise into the quarterfinals. BetMGM has Team USA as the only side with minus-odds to win the entire tournament, ahead of France, Belgium, Australia and Spain.
But games like this change the temperature of a group.
Italy’s opening 63-54 win over Czechia, powered by Zandalasini’s 19 points, already hinted at a team with bite. Against the U.S., that bite turned into a full-on challenge. They didn’t collapse when the Americans threatened to run away early. They didn’t blink when the lead hit double digits. They slowed the game, mucked it up, and forced the world’s best to wrestle with their own flaws.
By the time Italy grabbed that 33-32 lead in the third, it was no longer a curiosity. It was a statement.
What comes next for a shaken superpower
The World Cup schedule doesn’t leave much time for reflection. After this bruising encounter with Italy, Team USA turns around to face Czechia on Monday, Sept. 7, again at 2:45 p.m. ET in Berlin. The group winner goes straight to the quarterfinals on Sept. 10; second and third place must survive a Playoff Qualification Round on Sept. 8 to stay alive.
Sue Bird, now the program’s managing director, framed the mission before the Italy game: build chemistry while respecting every opponent. “It'll be a challenge,” she said, “and hopefully, we can do a little bit of both.”
Italy made sure the “challenge” part landed.
For all the pedigree, all the history, all the odds tilted in red, white and blue, this game in Berlin underlined a simple truth: reputations don’t make jump shots, and gold-medal streaks don’t break full-court pressure.
If this is what Team USA looks like when the shots don’t fall and the pressure rises, the rest of the tournament just got a lot more interesting.
