Scots braced for USA test but Kerr insists players have to learn

Scotland head coach Shelley Kerr hopes her players can rise to the occasion against the USA tonight. Pic: SNS

If the aim of every ambitious coach and player is to be tested against the best, opportunity will knock for Scotland at Paisley's Simple Digital Arena tonight. It's an appropriately named venue, because, whichever way you look at it, the USA are simply the best when it comes to women's football.

Not only have they won the World Cup more often than any other nation – three out of the seven editions – and four Olympic tournaments, their sustained level of success since playing their first international match in 1985 is astonishing. It took them five games to get off the mark, but when they beat Portugal 1-0 in Estoril on Thursday night, it was win No 500 from 639 outings.

The only surprising aspect of the Portugal result was they didn’t rattle in more goals, but it took their current unbeaten run to 27 games. Three of the superstars of women’s football are available in attack and between them Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe have amassed over 550 international appearances and almost 250 goals.