The Nigeria women’s national team starts their quest for glory in the early hour on Friday against Olympic champions Canada, at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.
With Group B considered this year’s Group of Death, Canada may take confidence from the fact that they have won their last two World Cup openers by a 1-0 scoreline.
On the international scene, both teams have demonstrated their skill and expertise, and this encounter is expected to be no different with both sides sensing an opportunity to make a winning start to their respective campaigns.
However, Canada’s last defeat to any of the three nations in Group B was to Nigeria in 2011, a 1-0 loss in the final group stage fixture which sealed the Canucks exit at the World Cup, thanks to Perpetua Nkwocha’s lone strike.
Nigeria and Canada have met five times before, and two of those meetings have come in the Women’s World Cup with the Super Falcons unbeaten in those two World Cup meetings, but they came rather a long time ago – a 3-3 draw in 1995 and the aforementioned 1-0 win in 2011.
Canada have beaten Nigeria twice in friendlies in recent years, before the sides played out a 2-2 draw in their most recent meeting in April 2022, during Canada’s Olympic celebration tour.
The hosts won 2-0 in the first match at B.C. Place in Vancouver but the rematch at Starlight Stadium in Victoria saw Nigeria twice took the lead, but were pegged back both times.
While Canada have participated in every World Cup final since missing the 1991 event, their best outing was a fourth-placed finish in 2003.
On the other hand, Super Falcons have made an appearance at every world cup, but have only progressed past the group stages twice when they reached the quarterfinals in 1999 and Round of 16 in 2019.
However, the present Canada squad has midfield depth, forward diversity, and backline intelligence, all of which can beat Nigeria if Priestman’s side can display this range of talents.
Meanwhile, many of the members of their squad who won gold in Tokyo in 2020 are still around, so they have plenty of experience in their ranks.
Sitting in 40th place in the FIFA World Rankings, the Super Falcons are the lowest-ranked side in a group that features co-hosts Australia (10th), Olympic champions Canada (7th), and debutants the Republic of Ireland (20th).
Since the turn of the century, they have failed to score in 12 of their 16 matches at the Women’s World Cup and have won only two of those games. However, perhaps crucially, one of those wins was a 1–0 over Canada back in 2011, while the other was at the most recent tournament – a 2-0 win over South Korea in 2019.
However, with victories over Costa Rica, Haiti, and New Zealand in their last three games, Randy Waldrum’s team has garnered crucial confidence.
The Super Falcons also recorded a massive 8-1 victory against the Queensland Lions FC in a warm-up match.
Considering Canada are Nigeria’s first World Cup opponent this year, we can anticipate a tactical duel that will highlight the best of women’s soccer as football enthusiasts.
Canada secured their place in these World Cup finals hosted by Australia and New Zealand by virtue of finishing runners-up in the 2022 CONCACAF Women’s Championship but results in recent times may just be asking a few questions around Canada’s credentials to join Australia into the knockout rounds.
Four defeats in their last five matches overall have produced losses against Brazil, USA, Japan and France but they did manage to at least avenge the defeat to Brazil as they swiftly made amends by beating them 2-0 in the SheBelieves Cup in Nashville.
Ultimately, Nigeria and Canada are very similar in terms of physicality and capitalizing in transitional moments, and the story may well come down to who can do it better across the 90 minutes under the pressure of a World Cup group opener.
If they start, Quinn will become the first non-binary athlete at a World Cup, while GOAT Christine Sinclair and opposing centre-back Onome Ebi both 40 years old, enter their sixth and surely final World Cup.
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