Urawa vs United United : Schmeichel, Pallister, Johnsen, Clegg, P Nev, Keane, Cruyff, Butt, Mulryne, Cole, Solskjaer It was a tale of 2 halves. United were strong and effective in the first half. Urawa hardly had a chance to take a shot at Smike's goal. Solskjaer scored both United's goals in the first half. It was Ole's 2nd goal that showed what United is made of, teamwork ie. Cruyff won the ball in the middle of the field, passed to Cole who was on his left. Cole spotted Butt charging down the middle and sent a perfect pass. Butt charged towards goal, at the same time, Solskjaer was doing the same on his right. Unselfishly, Butt laid the ball for Solskjaer to wack the ball in. Super play from United. Smikes, Johnsen and Solskjaer were taken off at half time. In came, Van Der Gouw, Poborsky and McClair. United, however were in sixes and sevens. Urawa came out a changed team. They were fighting for every ball and were giving Pally and gang nightmares. In one such raid, Urawa won themselves a free kick just outside the box. The free kick went towards a Urawa player who was completely unmarked just before Gouw, he headed into goal with ease. United players just looked at one another. Alex sensed something might be wrong, he took off Mulryne and Clegg and replaced them with Irwin and Scholes. Keane was pushed back to defence. Still, there wasn't much improvement. Cole and Cruyff lacked support from the midfield. Butt, Scholes and Poborsky were closed down immediately when they received the ball. Urawa meanwhile threatened to equalise. Gouw had to make 2 super saves within seconds to keep United in the game. From the resulting corner, Gouw again proved to be the stumbling block as he dived to save a header. Gouw proved to be very reliable in the middle of goal as he stopped whatever attacks Urawa threw at United. In the end, United scrapped to their 3rd win in a row. Their clean state was gone though. From the look of things, United are not ready yet. It'll be interesting to see how they flair against real opponents, like Inter Milan in their next game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Man United 22 Jul 1997 SOLSKJAER AT THE DOUBLE Ole Gunnar Solskjaer struck twice to give Manchester United a 2-1 win over Urawa Red Diamonds in Japan today. The Norwegian headed the champions into the lead from a Philip Mulryne cross in the 13th minute and scored again six minutes before the break after Andy Cole and Nicky Butt provided him with the chance in front of goal. The withdrawal of Solskjaer at half-time with a foot injury, and the substitution of goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel with Raimond van der Gouw seemed to turn the tide in the Diamonds' favour. The Japanese repeatedly threatened the United goal, thrilling the 17,642 strong crowd at the Komaba stadium, and Kenji Oshiba pulled one back with a 51st minute header from a free kick by German Guido Buchwald.