France, Germany, Spain and USA.
THE OPENING READ
The best four teams are here. The biggest numbers mostly are not.
That is not a contradiction. It is the clearest explanation of how a short international tournament works.
The semifinalists are first through fourth in the live We Know the W Score, yet their players occupy only three of the 18 top-three positions across FIBA’s six headline leaderboards. Gabby Williams appears in efficiency and steals. Caitlin Clark appears in assists. Everyone else at the top is already out.
The Final Four has not been built by four solo acts. France bends the floor with shooting and waves of pressure. USA buries teams beneath lineups. Germany protects the ball, rebounds and lets Berlin supply the extra pulse. Spain has trusted Iyana Martin and Awa Fam with responsibilities much larger than their résumés.
FOOD FOR THOUGHTLeaderboards tell us who accumulated the loudest numbers. The Final Four tells us which team identities survived contact.
Held by players from the semifinal field.
Consecutive USA World Cup wins.
France and Germany can each reach a first final.
OVERALL TOURNAMENT PULSE
Four résumés. One live hierarchy.
The W Score is a performance measure, not a prediction. It blends win rate, point differential, scoring rate and strength of schedule using completed World Cup games.
LIVE FIBA RESULTSLoading the latest completed games…
Building the Final Four board…
THE IMPORTANT CONTEXT
Germany’s record includes an extra qualification game. France, Spain and USA advanced directly from their groups. The W Score uses every completed game, so volume alone does not create the ranking.
USA · QUARTERFINAL RECEIPTS
OFFICIAL FIBA RECORDSUSA 108, HUNGARY 56 · QUARTERFINAL
The quarterfinal wrote its own record book.
USA did not just survive the knockout bracket. Against Hungary, depth became a statistical event: the attack was already historical before halftime, then kept going.
A record first-half total in a Women’s World Cup quarterfinal.
The first team to reach 30-plus assists in a Women’s World Cup quarterfinal.
The highest team total ever recorded in a Women’s World Cup quarterfinal.
Five scorers made the point: this is a lineup story, not a solo rescue.
THE LEADERBOARD PARADOX3 of 18
top-three places belong to a Final Four player
Six categories · three places each · updates with the main FIBA dashboardReading the tournament leaders…
COUNTRY DASHBOARD
Pick a semifinal. See where it bends.
Switch matchups to compare the latest team record, offense, defense, margin and W Score. The pressure points come from FIBA’s official semifinal previews.
Loading the country matchup…
WHAT EACH GAME IS REALLY ASKING
Two semifinals. Two different kinds of pressure.
One game is about whether a system can outlast a building. The other is about whether control can keep a wave from forming.
SEMIFINAL 01 · FRANCE vs GERMANY
Can Germany make France play one possession at a time?
France has spent this tournament removing oxygen. It is shooting 61.4 percent on twos and 45.7 percent from three while holding opponents to 27.6 percent beyond the arc. When Gabby Williams turns one mistake into transition and Marine Johannès stretches the defense another step, the opponent can lose the game in a two-minute blur.
Germany’s counter is not to win a track meet. It is to refuse to donate possessions. The hosts average only 9.8 turnovers, own a 46.2 to 39.5 rebounding advantage over France, and have won four straight since Spain beat them by 30 on opening day. Leonie Fiebich can control a game without dominating shots; Frieda Bühner supplies efficient scoring; Nyara Sabally just punished Belgium with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
THE PRESSURE POINTFrance wants multiplication. Germany wants preservation.
If the hosts keep the possession count clean and the crowd engaged, the favorite has to execute instead of simply overwhelm.
SEMIFINAL 02 · SPAIN vs USA
Can Spain keep USA from becoming an avalanche?
USA’s 108 to 56 quarterfinal win was not merely a response to the close call against Italy. It was a warning. Five players reached double figures, the team produced 31 assists, and the score became the highest ever in a Women’s World Cup quarterfinal. USA also poured in 59 first-half points, a quarterfinal record. It does not need one scorer to own the night because the next lineup can change the terms.
Spain cannot trade runs. FIBA’s semifinal preview gives USA a 17.3 to 8.8 edge in fast-break points and a 48.8 to 29 advantage in bench scoring. Spain’s route is deliberate: protect the ball, make the game live in the half court and trust Martin and Fam to create without feeding USA’s transition. The underdog does not need forty perfect minutes. It needs forty connected ones.
THE PRESSURE POINTSpain wants a negotiation. USA wants a landslide.
The longer the score stays tight, the more each empty American possession starts to feel expensive.
PLAYER STORYBOARD
Eight players who can change the shape of today.
Filter by country. Every image is an official FIBA player portrait, and the displayed averages are frozen through the quarterfinals so the comparison does not change mid-article.
Statistics through the quarterfinals
Setting the player board…
SHAK’S READ · BEFORE TIPOFF
The safest final is France vs USA. The interesting part is why that safety can fail.
France and USA own the top two W Scores, the two largest average margins and the deepest answers. That makes them the responsible picks. It does not make either semifinal ceremonial.
Germany has the best upset ingredients against a high-speed favorite: few turnovers, superior rebounding and a home crowd that has already watched one giant fall. Spain has the best upset blueprint against USA: shrink the possession game, keep the ball out of transition and make the favorite solve pressure late.
If the favorites advance, it will be because their depth turns forty minutes into too many questions. If one does not, it will be because the underdog made the game smaller until one answer was enough.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
A box score rewards volume. A semifinal rewards the skill that survives when the opponent knows it is coming. Which team still looks like itself after the game takes away Plan A?
THE RECEIPTS
Schedule, statistics, reporting and photography.
The dashboards refresh from We Know the W’s official FIBA-connected feed. Preview-only numbers are frozen before the September 12 semifinals.
Official semifinal scheduleFrance vs Germany and Spain vs USA times, paths and final pairing.
France vs Germany previewShooting, turnovers, rebounding and the Williams and Fiebich matchup.
Spain vs USA previewTransition, bench scoring, history and the Fam and Stewart matchup.
USA’s record quarterfinalThe 108 points, 31 assists and five double-figure scorers.
Germany’s historic nightThe Belgium upset, Sabally’s double-double and Berlin’s crowd.
Spain’s young creatorsHow Martin and Fam have carried senior-level responsibility.
FIBA MVP LadderWilliams, Stewart and the other semifinal candidates.
Official tournament statisticsThe current field-wide leaderboards behind the live player story.
Semifinal market snapshotBest available moneylines shown in the odds panel. Lines can change.
PHOTO NOTEAll player photographs on this page are real official FIBA profile assets. No AI-generated player imagery is used.