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The U.S. women’s national basketball team does not often find itself in close games.
Seeking an eighth consecutive gold medal, the squad arrived in Paris carrying an Olympic record of 72–3, with the most recent of those losses from before most of this roster was even born. (It came against the Soviet Unified Team in 1992.) The dynasty is among the most impressive examples of international sporting dominance. It has been possible to watch an entire Games without seeing the U.S. women so much as flirt with the mere idea of stress in the second half.
But while close calls during international play are very, very rare for Team USA, they’re not unheard of. There’s one that might feel particularly relevant now.
The most recent country to seriously pressure the U.S.? Belgium. And next up in group play for the U.S.? Belgium.
The country is not exactly known as an international basketball powerhouse. But at an Olympic qualifying game in February, the Americans needed a buzzer beater to defeat the Belgians, escaping with a final score of 81–79. It made for a surprising display of fallibility for the U.S. women. A fairly undersized Team Belgium was able to hold nearly even with Team USA both on the boards and in the paint while comfortably outscoring them from three. It’s fair to point out the Americans were not at full strength that day: They were missing star forward A’ja Wilson and point guard Chelsea Gray. Yet the situation was similar for the Belgians, who also missed two starters, including 6’4” center Kyara Linskens. For their Olympic game on Thursday, the heavy favorite is still, of course, the Americans. But this rematch stood out on the schedule for both nations.
For the U.S., the qualifying contest was a reminder that even for this strongest of teams, nothing is guaranteed. If this game felt like an important learning experience—it’s rare for this group to get a test of their execution in the fourth quarter—it’s one they cannot afford to see again. And for Belgium, it was an encouraging sign that even against the stiffest of competition, this group can hold its own.
“It kind of gave us confidence that we can compete on the highest level and that we really belong,” says point guard Julie Vanloo, the only Belgian woman playing this season in the WNBA. “I think we made a little statement.”
That statement added to one the Belgians have steadily been making over the last few years. If this group was once an afterthought in the international basketball landscape—not so much anymore. The Belgian women qualified for their first Olympics in Tokyo and won their first EuroBasket title last June. Much of the team has stayed together in Europe this year to continue training as a group. (Vanloo is the only Belgian player in the W this season but is not the only one with experience in the league: The big name here is 2019 WNBA Finals MVP Emma Meesseman.) Yet the team opened group play with a surprising upset loss to Germany—which only increases the importance of this game against the U.S. A seriously competitive matchup is a long shot. But the Belgians will remind each other that was the case in February, too, and they still managed to bring it down to the wire there.
“We know Team USA is just the top of the top,” says Vanloo, who led Belgium in scoring in that February qualifying game with 19. “They have depth, they have a threat on every level, so we knew that. But the thing is—we were O.K. with being underdogs. We’re O.K. being a country that plays without that pressure.”
The most serious threat Belgium posed in that qualifying game came from beyond the arc. Team Belgium shot 12-for-29 from three; Team USA went just 4-for-19. This would seem to be the recipe for testing the U.S. as much as possible: hope a player like Vanloo gets hot from three while doing everything possible to mitigate damage inside. Even that is likely to end in a loss. (The U.S. is simply that good.) But it’s the most logical pathway towards a tight contest. And it surely has not been lost on Belgium that the U.S. struggled with the three-ball in its otherwise dominant opening win over Japan.
The qualifying game from February is one the coaching staff has gone back to many times since, U.S. head coach Cheryl Reeve said.
“A game like that, in an environment like that, I think that will prove to be a valuable, valuable experience for us as we continue to move forward towards being in Paris,” Reeve said just before the team left for the Olympics.
Of course, Wilson being on the court for the U.S. this time should be a serious change. The consensus best player in the WNBA—the consensus best player in the world—is a nightmare to face in the paint on both ends of the floor and more versatile than ever. But allow Vanloo the chance to make a few counterarguments. She points out that Belgium adding Linskens is not to be overlooked. “She’s the most skilled post player I’ve ever played with,” Vanloo says. “She’s very underrated.” And she adds what she views as another asset for her squad: home court advantage.
The group play for basketball is taking place in Lille, rather than in Paris, which puts the games close to the border with Belgium. (It’s less than an hour by train to the Basketball Belgium headquarters in Brussels.) The team is treating these as home games, essentially, and they plan to have a stadium full of supporters to match.
“We’re so close to where our base is, where we always practice,” Vanloo says. “For us, it’s easy to go home.”
The Americans, naturally, are still heavily favored to win, even before a sea of fans clad in black, yellow and red. But after their close call in February, this group knows not to take any chances.
“It’s going to be a great game,” says Team USA forward Napheesa Collier. “They’re a really good team. So I think it’s going to be a battle.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why Belgium Is a Surprisingly Tricky Matchup for U.S. Women’s Basketball.
