absence of star player Satou Sabally<\/a> is a major blow.<\/p>\nThe New York Liberty forward is still dealing with the effects of a concussion \u2014 her second of the year \u2014 sustained in a game against Las Vegas in June.<\/p>\n
Sabally\u2019s younger sister Nyara, who plays for the Toronto Tempo, is yet to make her comeback from a calf injury, while Liberty\u2019s Leonie Fiebich, another key player, is just back from a foot injury.<\/p>\n
Discouraging buildup<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s preparations for the expanded 16-team 20th edition of the tournament haven\u2019t been optimal with three straight defeats to Spain, Hungary and Turkey in warmup games.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, we were hoping for a win but it was just a friendly,\u201d Luisa Geisels\u00f6der said of the latest loss, 63-62 to Turkey in Cologne on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Geisels\u00f6der\u2019s WNBA colleagues Sabally, Fiebich and her Portland Fire teammate Frieda B\u00fchner missed the warmup games but their arrival should provide a boost.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned a lot today,\u201d Germany coach Olaf Lange said after the Turkey game. \u201cBut with the three (WNBA players yet to arrive) we\u2019re a completely different team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lange said he was confident Nyara Sabally will be able to play at the tournament based on the results of an MRI scan on her calf.<\/p>\n
Germany will also be reliant on combo guard Alexis Peterson as the primary playmaker.<\/p>\n
Team captain Marie G\u00fclich made her comeback from a serious knee injury in the 65-60 friendly loss to Spain.<\/p>\n
Familiar foe<\/p>\n
Germany starts Friday with another clash against Spain in the 14,000 capacity Berlin Arena, so-called for the tournament to avoid mentioning the venue\u2019s frequently changing sponsor.<\/p>\n
The Max-Schmeling-Halle, a multipurpose 9,000 seat venue named after Germany\u2019s heavyweight champion from 1932, will also host games for the tournament.<\/p>\n
Germany has never beaten Spain in seven competitive meetups. Spain won their last meeting 79-60 in the group stage of Eurobasket in Hamburg last year.<\/p>\n
Germany then faces Japan in the Max-Schmeling-Halle on Saturday, before finishing Group A with a game it will be expected to win against Mali on Sept. 7.<\/p>\n
Only the bottom team in each of the four groups is eliminated. The group winners advance directly to the quarterfinals, while the others face playoffs to advance to the last eight.<\/p>\n
Big interest<\/p>\n
Organizers announced that more than 200,000 tickets have been sold for the tournament already \u2014 more than for any of the previous editions. The final on Sept. 13 is sold out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re witnessing an extraordinary evolution of our sport, and this World Cup in Berlin will mark another major milestone,\u201d German Basketball Federation president Ingo Weiss said. \u201c200,000 tickets is a fantastic sign, and we\u2019re far from finished yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full WNBA coverage here<\/a><\/p>\nCopyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN (AP) \u2014 Injuries and three straight losses in warmups have not dimmed hopes for host team Germany…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434,321681],"class_list":["post-832889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-world_cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}