By Victor Kanayo
Nigeria’s Super Falcons early Wednesday morning stepped up performance in the second friendly match tour against the United States Women National Team (USWNT) with a slim 1-2 loss inside the Audi Field in Washington, D.C.
Lose Lavelle scored the winning goal to gift the US team a 13th straight victory over Nigeria.
But the Nigerian team gave a good account of themselves with Uchena Kanu scoring for her side in what appeared a first time the Super Falcons will score a goal in any encounter against the World Champions in the past 20 years.
The Falcons, nine-time African champions had in the first game on Friday lost 0-4 at the Kansas City stadium.
With two U20 players drafted into the team as starters, they showed character and discipline in the second match of the keenly contested encounter.
The Americans took the lead in the 25th minute through an own goal from Nigerian defender Tosin Demehin.
The Yankees ladies pressed to add more goals but Super Falcons goalkeeper, Nnadozie Chiamaka, stood her ground to deny them and kept the first half scoreline to end 1-0.
The Nigerians returned in the second half as the better side and their efforts paid off early enough with Kanu scoring a leveler in the 49th minute.
America’s Lavele scored the winning goal for the host in the 67th minute through aheader for her team.
Both teams have qualified for next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia.
