{"id":846333,"date":"2026-09-13T12:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T12:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/846333\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T12:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T12:16:09","slug":"candace-parker-warns-team-usa-before-france-showdown-everybody-wants-to-see-usa-stumble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/846333\/","title":{"rendered":"Candace Parker warns Team USA before France showdown: “Everybody wants to see USA stumble”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Candace Parker<\/a> has warned Team USA that the pressure surrounding the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup<\/a> final goes far beyond the opponent standing in front of them.<\/p>\n

The United States will face France for the championship in Berlin, attempting to win a fifth consecutive world title and extend its remarkable dominance of the competition.<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers show growing chemistry before USA-Spain semifinal<\/p>\n

Parker believes that success has also made the Americans the team everybody wants to knock down.<\/p>\n

“Everybody wants to see USA stumble,” Parker said.<\/p>\n

The two-time WNBA MVP explained that years of winning have changed the atmosphere around Team USA whenever it reaches the biggest stage.<\/p>\n

Candace Parker says USA has become the target<\/p>\n

Parker knows exactly what comes with wearing the national team jersey after winning Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012.<\/p>\n

She argued that opponents don’t simply approach games against the United States as another fixture because beating Team USA carries a different level of significance.<\/p>\n

“When you’re at the top, everybody is coming for you,” Parker said.<\/p>\n

That pressure has followed the Americans throughout the tournament, even as they have continued finding ways to advance.<\/p>\n

Team USA has faced criticism over performances, rotations and individual players, but it has still reached another final with the opportunity to add yet another championship.<\/p>\n

France stands between USA and another title<\/p>\n

France now has the chance to produce the result the rest of the basketball world has been waiting for.<\/p>\n

The Americans haven’t lost a Women’s World Cup game since 2006 and have won the last four tournaments, creating an era of dominance few national teams in any sport can match.<\/p>\n

Parker believes that history means USA can’t afford to treat the final like an ordinary game.<\/p>\n

“There’s a target on your back every single game,” she said.<\/p>\n

France will enter with nothing to lose and an opportunity to end one of international basketball’s longest winning runs.<\/p>\n

Team USA, meanwhile, carries the expectation that anything short of another championship will be considered a failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Candace Parker has warned Team USA that the pressure surrounding the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup final goes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-846333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846333","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=846333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}