Changes unsettle Nigeria

There were smiles all round and plenty of promises about a new beginning but behind all the rhetoric and bravado, it was clear yesterday that Nigeria's World Cup preparations are running anything but smoothly.

As he prepared for tonight's warm-up game against Paraguay at Queen's Park Rangers' Loftus Road, Festus Onigbinde, Nigeria's third coach in a year, admitted it was "a little bit late" to make wholesale changes. But that is exactly what he has been charged to do after an acrimonious African Nations' Cup when the Super Eagles came crashing to earth in the semi-finals amid allegations of mismanagement and indiscipline.

Tonight represents the first game of Onigbinde's second spell in charge. Hesaid his goal was the same: to create harmony where there was previously discord. A tough task, but Onigbinde is nothing if not straightforward in his assessment of Nigeria's preparations. "We thought it would be disastrous to take the same team that performed in Mali to the World Cup," he said. "Nigerians want a team that is cohesive, disciplined and dedicated, in other words a change in attitude."

Only six of the Mali squad are in tonight's party of 27. Arsenal's Kanu and Celestine Babayaro of Chelsea both trained yesterday but notable absentees included Ipswich's Finidi George and the former captain, Sunday Oliseh.

Kanu agreed that World Cup preparations were by no means ideal. "New trainer, new players, nobody knows what is really going on,'' the Arsenal striker said. "But we have to come together, to do our best for our country and try to adjust. I won't lie to you, it's going to be difficult but we are not afraid of anyone.''

Kanu said he was surprised that so many adjustments were being made so close to Japan and Korea. "At this stage you don't have changes like this but that's the way Nigeria is. When we are on the pitch we will try to forget about it because all of us want to achieve something.''