Canada confirms Super Falcons friendlies for April

Women’s Africa Cup of Nations holders Nigeria will play reigning Olympic champions Canada in two international friendlies.

Canada will host the two games in British Columbia on 8 and 11 April.

The contests against the world’s sixth-ranked international side will form part of the Super Falcons’ preparations for their 2022 Women’s AFCON campaign.

The two-match west coast series will open on 8 April at BC Place in Vancouver and three days later at Langford’s Starlight Stadium on Vancouver Island, according to the Canada Soccer Association (CSA).

The first match in Vancouver provides Canada with the opportunity to celebrate the country’s most-capped player Christine Sinclair’s world international goal scoring record (188 goals in 308 appearances).

It will be the fourth meeting between the two nations with honours even so far.

Their first encounter was a 3-3 draw at the 1995 World Cup in Sweden, followed by a 1-0 for Nigeria at the 2011 global showpiece, while Canada claimed a 2-1 win in a friendly in 2019.

The West Africans have won the past three continental titles and will defend their crown in Morocco from 2-23 July, with the four semi-finalists automatically qualifying for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

The Super Falcons are the continent’s most successful national side, with nine Nations Cup titles, and remain the only African team to have played at all eight Women’s World Cup finals since 1991.

But they have failed to translate their continental dominance on the world stage.

Nigeria’s best performance on the global stage came in the USA in 1999 when they reached the World Cup quarter-finals.

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens they again reached the quarter-finals, the team’s run at the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France ended in a last-16 defeat by Germany.

TheNation/Nnenna.O