Team USA Dominates Czechia in World Cup Showdown
Team USA didn’t just respond on Monday in Berlin. It roared back.
Twenty-four hours after grinding through a 55-52 rock fight against Italy — their lowest-scoring World Cup game since 1984 — the Americans tore into Czechia and ripped through Group D with a 105-64 win that felt like a course correction as much as a result.
That’s 3-0 in the group. A 41-point win. And a 33rd straight World Cup victory, a streak stretching all the way back to 2006.
The standard, emphatically, remains the same.
Stewart and the veterans reassert control
If Sunday’s scare raised eyebrows, the veterans took that personally.
From the opening tip, Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier played like they were intent on restoring order. They combined for 25 points in the first half alone, setting a tone that never dipped. Stewart, named player of the game, needed only 17 minutes to stack up 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists, a masterclass in efficiency and control.
“I wanted to come out and really lead this team in a number of ways,” Stewart said afterward. She did exactly that, dictating tempo, spacing the floor, and punishing every Czechia lapse.
This is Stewart’s fourth World Cup, putting her alongside Sue Bird (5) and Diana Taurasi (4) as the only American women with at least four appearances. If the U.S. completes the job and wins gold in Berlin, she will tie Bird for the most World Cup gold medals by an American. That’s the company she keeps — and the level she played at on Monday.
Around her, the experienced core snapped the group into line. Collier finished with 12 points, Angel Reese added 13, Jackie Young also had 12, and Paige Bueckers and Sonia Citron chipped in 10 apiece. Six players in double figures, every player on the roster on the scoresheet. The message from the vets to the nine World Cup debutants was clear: this is the standard.
Lawson’s challenge answered
The turning point didn’t come on the court. It came in the locker room after Italy.
Kara Lawson didn’t sugarcoat anything with her newly assembled team. She went straight at their pride — questioning their passion, their intensity, their willingness to compete at the level that wearing USA across the chest demands.
“Let this be the last time that a team plays with more passion than us throughout the course of the game,” Lawson told them. “Let this be the last time that all 12 don't show up to compete at a high level.”
On Monday, there was no doubt. The U.S. came out snarling.
They opened with three straight 3-pointers, blew the game open with a 13-4 run, and led by 14 after the first quarter. The defensive pressure smothered Czechia’s guards, the Americans ran in waves, and the contest turned from competitive to academic before halftime.
“I knew our offense would come around. I’m so pleased with the way they are playing. Their effort and energy,” Lawson said at the break. It wasn’t coach-speak. You could see it in every closeout, every sprint in transition, every extra pass.
The 41-point margin was their largest of the tournament. The response Lawson demanded? Delivered.
Threes fall, offense flows
On Sunday, the 3-point line was a graveyard: 1-for-12 against Italy, every miss feeding frustration.
On Monday, Stewart buried a 3 with 9:09 left in the first quarter to open the scoring. That one shot seemed to loosen everything.
Team USA hit five 3s in the first half and finished 7-for-25. The volume stayed high, the confidence stayed higher, and seven different players knocked down at least one from deep. The spacing improved, the ball moved, and Czechia’s defense never got comfortable.
“We took some strides in transition offense,” Lawson said. “I thought we made some strides in our half court offensive execution, and our defensive awareness.”
The box score backed her up. The U.S. poured in 52 points in the paint, ran relentlessly, and turned misses into instant fast breaks. Czechia simply couldn’t keep up.
Iriafen makes her minutes count
On a roster this deep, roles can swing from night to night. Kiki Iriafen is living proof.
She didn’t see the floor at all against Italy. Against Czechia, Lawson called her number — and Iriafen crashed the game like someone who had been waiting and working for her moment.
In just eight minutes, she grabbed 11 rebounds, including six on the offensive glass, scored five points and added a steal. Every possession she touched seemed to tilt the energy back toward the Americans.
You can’t script that kind of impact in such a short window. You can only stay ready for it.
Czechia overwhelmed on the way out
For Czechia, the assignment was brutal: face a wounded U.S. team with something to prove.
They never really escaped the vise.
The Americans hammered them inside, winning the rebounding battle 55-35 and outscoring them 52-30 in the paint. Czechia turned the ball over 16 times and struggled to cope with the physicality and depth thrown at them in waves.
“We played against the best of the best, the United States,” head coach Romana Ptáčková said. “It was really tough. We knew that, we knew that it's going to be hard in a low post and they showed us that.”
Czechia finished the tournament 0-3, with losses to Italy, China and now the U.S. The gulf in size, speed and experience was stark.
The cruelest subplot belonged to guard Eliska Joklova. Hours before tip, the Minnesota Lynx announced they were waiving her to make room for Aari McDonald. Then she had to face this American juggernaut.
To her credit, Joklova responded with 19 points, the only Czech player in double figures. It was a brave individual performance on a day that piled on every possible test. Against this U.S. team, it was never going to be enough.
One blemish: turnovers linger
For all the dominance, Lawson will have one clip on repeat in the film room: second-half turnovers.
Team USA played a clean opening 20 minutes, with zero turnovers in the first quarter and just two by halftime. After the break, that composure slipped. The Americans coughed it up 11 times in the second half, gifting Czechia 11 points.
“We're improving every day,” Lawson said. “Every day that we're together, we're getting understanding of how to play off of one another, even how to communicate off of one another.”
That understanding will need to sharpen as the stakes rise. The quarterfinals leave no room for casual giveaways.
Quarterfinals ahead
The group stage is done. The U.S. has swept Group D, stretched a World Cup winning streak that has lasted 18 years, and rediscovered its attacking edge after a scare.
Next up: the quarterfinals on Thursday, where they’ll face the winner of Japan vs. Hungary.
The veterans have reasserted themselves. The newcomers have had their first taste of tournament pressure. The standard has been laid out in bold.
Now comes the real question: can anyone actually stop them?
