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Canada WNT to play 2 friendlies vs Nigeria in B.C.
Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team will face Nigeria in a pair of international matches as the Women’s National Team Celebration Tour comes to British Columbia for the upcoming April window on the FIFA International Match Calendar.
The two-match west coast series will open Friday 8 April at BC Place in Vancouver and continue Monday 11 April at Langford’s Starlight Stadium on Vancouver Island, according to Canada Soccer.
The first match in Vancouver also provides Canada Soccer with the opportunity to celebrate Christine Sinclair’s world international goalscoring record in front of her home crowd. This celebration was originally planned for April 2020, but postponed on account of the global pandemic. Since breaking the record in January 2020, the Canadian captain from neighbouring Burnaby, British Columbia led Canada to an Olympic Gold Medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in August 2021.
The two-match series will also mark a farewell to Stephanie Labbé who will wrap up her professional and international career as one of the best goalkeepers in the world. The Olympic Gold Medal winner, who finished second in voting for The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper in 2020-21, has already played her last club matches at Paris Saint-Germain FC and will now wear the Canada maple leaf for one last series on home soil.
“We look forward to reconnecting with our Canadian fans on the west coast for these two home matches,” said Bev Priestman, Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team Head Coach. “These two matches against Nigeria in Vancouver and Langford will also provide us with great experience as we continue to prepare for this summer’s qualifiers to both the FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games.”
Tickets for the two matches go on sale today (Friday 18 March) via Ticketmaster.ca. Both the Friday 8 April BC Place and Monday 11 April Starlight Stadium matches will kick off at 19.30 local time. Group discounts (10+ tickets) are available for the match at BC Place on Friday 8 April.
Canada are currently preparing for the 2022 Concacaf W Championship which doubles as both the qualification route for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 as well as the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The upcoming Concacaf W Championship will feature eight nations from 4-18 July in Monterrey, NL, Mexico, with Canada and USA to be joined by six other nations yet to be determined through April’s Concacaf W Qualifiers.
For their part, Nigeria has always been one of the top nations in women’s football, in fact 11-time African champions and one of only seven nations in the world that have qualified for every edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup since 1991. Like Canada, Nigeria is currently preparing for their summer qualifiers to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023: Nigeria is one of 12 nations competing in the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations from 2-23 July.
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