Falcons aim to end 22-year winless run against US

The Super Falcons face a daunting task ending their five game winless run against US women’s national team in the early hours of Thursday at this year’s Summer Series – a four-nation tournament in the US, The PUNCH reports.

Randy Waldrum’s charges have failed to win any of their past five encounters against the Americans in 22 years.

The nine-time African champions having been on the losing side in four Women’s World Cup confrontations in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015 and once at the Olympics in 2000.

They managed a miserly two goals, conceding 17 goals in those encounters, witheir highest defeat to the Americans a 7-1 humiliation at the 1999 Women’s World Cup in the US.

Waldrum’s side have not won their two games at the Summer Series against Jamaica and Portugal.

The African champions lost 1-0 to Jamaica last Friday and held Portugal 3-3 on Sunday.

Speaking ahead of the game billed for the Q2 stadium Austin, Texas, Waldrum warned that his team must be cautious to avoid another defeat.The Falcons are ranked 38th while USA are No.1 in the global rankings.

“We have to clean things defensively because if we don’t, we will be in some real trouble with the US,” Waldrum said after his team played out a 3-3 draw with Portugal.

“We have to correct our lapses because the US team can expose you in so many different ways.“One thing that concerns me is the fatigue and where we are physical with some of our players, but those are things we have to manage.

“We have to play at a higher level and these games (at Summer Series) against three good teams will challenge and expose us.

“The target is to move outside of Africa, we have to make Nigeria a world power.“It’s not just to qualify, but go far into World Cups and consistently being there.”,