MATCH PREVIEW: All you need to know about the Super Falcons and USWNT Clash

The Tremendous Falcons of Nigeria have arrived in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, United State for his or her doubleheader pleasant with the USA Ladies’s Nationwide Group.

They may play the primary of their two-match tour on the Kids’s Mercy Park in Kansas Metropolis on Saturday, September 3 18:00 GMT+1.

Nigeria and the USWNT have certified for the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup which can be hosted by Australia and New Zealand between July and August 2023.

Each groups will conflict once more on the Audi Discipline in Washington, D.C. three days after the primary match in Kansas on Tuesday, September 6 23:00 GMT+1.

Head Coach of the Tremendous Falcons, Randy Waldrum, has chosen 4 gamers from Nigeria’s U-20 women that reached the quarter-finals on the just-concluded FIFA U-20 Ladies’s World Cup in Costa Rica.

The 4 U-20 gamers are defenders Oluwatosin Demehin and Rofiat Imuran, and midfielders Esther Onyenezide and Deborah Abiodun.

Residence-based professionals Christy Ohiaeriaku, Akudo Ogbonna and Present Monday had been additionally included within the squad.

First-choice goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie, defender Osinachi Ohale, midfielder Toni Payne, and forwards Rasheedat Ajibade and Uchenna Kanu will present the backbone for an attention-grabbing Nigeria choice.

The USWNT have gained 4 out of the eight titles which were contested, making them probably the most profitable workforce within the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup.

The Stars & Stripes gained the inaugural competitors in China in 1991, adopted by victories on American soil in 1999, Canada in 2015, and France in 2013. The USWNT have additionally gained eight CONCACAF championships and 4 gold Olympic ladies’s soccer medals.

The Tremendous Falcons, then again, have gained the Ladies’s Africa Cup of Nations 9 instances, performed in each version of the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup and in addition performed on the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic ladies’s soccer tournaments. They continue to be probably the most profitable ladies’s workforce on the African continent.

The Kids’s Mercy Park is dwelling to Kansas Metropolis within the US Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League and Sporting Kansas Metropolis within the Main League Soccer, whereas Audi Discipline is utilized by Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League facet Washington Spirit and Main League Soccer workforce, D. C. United.

The match in Kansas Metropolis will see Vlatko Andonovski, appointed Coach of USWNT on the finish of 2019, return to his dwelling space for the second time. It’s the sixth time that the USWNT can be taking part in on the Kids’s Mercy Park however it’s their first time on the Audi Discipline, although they’ve performed 10 instances beforehand in Washington – all on the RFK Stadium.

Andonovski advised NFF Media that he’s excited to ship out his women towards the Tremendous Falcons.

“First, I’m simply excited to play two matches towards Nigeria. They’ve some very gifted gamers who will current loads of completely different issues for us to unravel on each side of the ball,” he mentioned.

FULL SUPER FALCONS SQUAD LIST FOR FRIENDLIES WITH USA:

GOALKEEPERS: Chiamaka Nnadozie (Paris FC, France); Christy Ohiaeriaku (Edo Queens)

DEFENDERS: Nicole Payne (West Virginia College, USA); Glory Ogbonna (ALG Spor, Turkey); Osinachi Ohale (Deportivo Alaves, Spain); Michelle Alozie (Houston Sprint, USA); Akudo Ogbonna (Edo Queens); Oluwatosin Demehin (Rivers Angels)

MIDFIELDERS: Jennifer Echegini (Florida State College, USA); Christy Ucheibe (SL Benfica, Portugal); Toni Payne (Sevilla FC, Spain); Amanda Mbadi Uju (Atasehir Belediyespor, Turkey); Deborah Abiodun (Rivers Angels)

FORWARDS: Rasheedat Ajibade (Atletico Madrid, Spain); Roof at Imuran (Rivers Angels); Uchenna Kanu (Tigres Femenil, Mexico); Vivian Ikechukwu (WFC Gintra, Lithuania); Ifeoma Onumonu (NY/NJ Gotham FC, USA); Present Monday (Bayelsa Queens); Esther Onyenezide (FC Robo Queens)

In accordance with the report coming from the camp of the World champions, USWNT, Trinity Rodman has pulled out of the workforce as a result of household causes.

And the workforce’s technical crew has known as up Savannah DeMelo to take her place on the workforce.

FULL USA SQUAD LIST FOR FRIENDLIES WITH NIGERIA:

GOALKEEPERS: Aubrey Kingsbury; Casey Murphy; Alyssa Naeher

DEFENDERS: Alana Cook dinner; Emily Fox; Naomi Girma; Sofia Huerta; Kelley O’Hara; Becky Sauerbrunn

MIDFIELDERS: Sam Coffey; Lindsey Horan; Taylor Kornieck; Rose Lavelle; Kristie Mewis; Ashley Sanchez; Andi Sullivan

FORWARDS: Ashley Hatch; Alex Morgan; Mallory Pugh; Midge Purce; Megan Rapinoe; Savannah De Melo, Sophia Smith.

The USA and Nigeria are set to fulfill for the second time in two years, although this can be simply the seventh matchup all-time between the nations and solely the second such assembly in a pleasant match. The primary 5 matchups between the USA and Nigeria all got here at world championship occasions, with 4 conferences on the Ladies’s World Cup (1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015) and one on the Olympics (2000).

Other than a 7-1 win within the first ever assembly between the groups – which got here in group play on the 1999 Ladies’s World Cup – and a 5-0 victory for the People within the 2003 World Cup group stage, nearly all of the conferences between these two international locations have been tightly contested. The USA defeated Nigeria, 3-1, on the 2000 Olympics and registered a pair of 1-0 group stage wins over the Tremendous Falcons at each the 2007 and 2015 World Cups.

The latest matchup between the 2 sides got here on June 16, 2021, in Austin, Texas, because the groups met within the first-ever soccer match at Austin’s FC’s spectacular Q2 Stadium. Christen Press scored the first-ever purpose in that venue and Lynn Williams added a rating off a counterattack for the 2-0 win for the People. The USA out-shot Nigeria 15-7 in that match, although solely six of the 23 gamers on this roster noticed motion in that 2021 match towards the Tremendous Falcons.

The USWNT has an ideal report towards African opposition, defeating Nigeria six instances in six conferences and South Africa twice in two video games. The USWNT has stored clear sheets in every of its final six video games towards CAF foes, which means Nigeria must do a complete lot to keep away from the report not extending to eight victories for the USA Ladies’s Nationwide Group.

Nigeria is coached by long-time American faculty coach Randy Waldrum, who can also be at present the pinnacle coach on the College of Pittsburgh. Waldrum was named as Nigeria’s head coach in Could of 2020 and beforehand served as head coach for the Houston Sprint within the NWSL from 2014-2017 and for the Trinidad & Tobago Ladies’s Nationwide Group from 2014-2016.

Waldrum additionally led the College of Notre Dame to 2 NCAA titles throughout his 15-year tenure in South Bend, Indiana from 1999-2013. The Texas native additionally did a brief stint because the U.S. Beneath-23 WNT head coach.

Together with the American affect on the teaching workers, a number of of the Tremendous Falcons latest call-ups have performed – or at present play – professionally or collegiately in the USA.

Midfielder Toni Payne, who grew up in Alabama, performed collegiately at Duke and offered the USA on the Youth Nationwide Group ranges. The truth is, she was part of the U.S. workforce that gained the 2012 CONCACAF U-17 Ladies’s Championship, scoring two targets with two assists in that match after which performed in all three video games on the 2012 FIFA U-17 Ladies’s World Cup, scoring towards Gambia. Payne’s youthful sister Nicole, who attends West Virginia, can also be on the squad and in addition represented the USA at varied age ranges.

Ifeoma Onumonu hails from Southern California and performed collegiately on the College of California, Berkeley. Onumonu beforehand performed for U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski after they had been each a part of the Seattle Reign group and at present performs alongside the USA’s Midge Purce and Kristie Mewis and NJ/NY Gotham FC.

Michelle Alozie is from Apple Valley, Calif. and performed faculty soccer at Tennessee. She at present performs for the Houston Sprint and has performed in six NWSL video games to date this season and scored her second purpose on Aug. 27 towards the Washington Spirit to equalizer in stoppage time.

The Tremendous Falcons of Nigeria face an uphill process towards the USA however they are going to be hoping to do Nigeria and Africa proud by defeating probably the most profitable workforce in Ladies’s soccer historical past.