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00:00 The Super Falcons carry the hopes of our nation on their shoulders in Australia and New Zealand
00:05 as they open their World Cup campaign with the daunting task of facing Olympic champions
00:10 Canada on Friday morning.
00:12 As we preview the game in this episode, we hope for a safe campaign after the reported
00:17 casualty in New Zealand involving the deaths and injuries of some persons.
00:22 My name is Ayomede Shotugwa and this is Anutmeg on GuardiaTV.
00:25 The Super Falcons are the form team heading into the game and they've won three of their
00:35 last five competitive games and are losing the other two games.
00:41 And the Canadian side have won once, they've drawn once and also lost three in that run.
00:47 And you consider the past result between both sides, there's been one win for Nigeria, one
00:52 win for Canada as well and then one loss for each and then two draws all in four meetings.
00:57 First of which was in June 1995 when Canada and Nigeria played a 3-3 draw and then the
01:04 following game between both sides was many years later in 2011 at the World Cup and Nigeria
01:10 defeated Canada.
01:11 It was a group A game at the time and then the next game was last year, 9th of April
01:17 2022.
01:18 And Nigeria picked up a two-nil victory at home against Nigeria and then a couple of
01:22 days later, at least four days later on the 12th of April, Canada and Nigeria sharing
01:27 the spoils to all intended and they had Christian Sinclair and Rashidat Adjibade on the score
01:34 sheet at that time.
01:35 In this fixture there have been 13 goals scored and also the Super Falcons have scored six
01:40 while Canada has scored seven, scoring more.
01:43 But then who are the players to watch going into this particular encounter?
01:47 Perhaps for Nigeria it's none other than Azizat Oshola who was in impeccable form last
01:52 season with 26 goals and six assists in 37 games for Barcelona, for many helping them
01:59 to treble and of course winning the league title and UEFA Women's Champions League in
02:05 that year.
02:06 With 29 goals for the national teams, Oshola who has got two in the World Cup will be looking
02:11 to join Rita Nwandike and Nkiru Okie-Eseme as Nigeria women's players with the most
02:18 goal at the World Cup.
02:21 And of course talking about the player to watch for Canada is Christian Sinclair, an
02:24 all-time international leading scorer with 190 goals.
02:28 She will hope to lead her younger Canadian teammates to their first triumph in the Women's
02:34 World Cup and that will begin with a possible win against Nigeria.
02:38 We hope not because of course we are Nigerians.
02:40 We'd also look to consolidate on a place in the World Cup history books by becoming
02:45 the first player either in the men's or women's game to score in six World Cups.
02:51 Yes of course just like Oonomaebi, she's going to be featuring in her sixth World Cup.
02:55 But what is my prediction for this game?
02:58 I think it's fair for the Falcons to chase a draw in this particular game.
03:03 Chase a draw, probably try and nick another one against Republic of Ireland because Australia
03:08 are a more difficult side to face.
03:09 So it would be fair enough to have five points starting from a draw against Canada because
03:14 Canada are Olympic champions and it's not going to be easy getting a victory against
03:18 them despite their poor form.
03:20 But then we wish the Super Falcons the best as they attempt to score high starting from
03:24 the first game.
03:25 Thank you for watching this video.
03:26 We'll also have to discuss the talking points in the next episode and also preview the next
03:32 game for you.
03:33 That will be against Australia.
03:36 My name is Amide Shutzubo and thank you for watching once again.
03:39 See you in the next episode.
03:40 [Music]