TOKYO, 29 July 2005 — Manchester United were jolted by an earthquake and two goals from Masashi Motoyama as they lost 2-1 to Japan’s Kashima Antlers in a preseason friendly yesterday.

A mild tremor rattled Tokyo’s National Stadium early in the first of United’s two preseason games in Japan and the visitors were also stunned after five minutes when Japan midfielder Motoyama lashed a left-foot volley past goalkeeper Tim Howard.

Ryan Giggs swept in a Cristiano Ronaldo cross to equalize three minutes later but Motoyama restored Kashima’s lead with a carbon-copy of his first goal in the 24th minute.

England forward Wayne Rooney went close with a fierce drive on the hour mark and Ronaldo headed wide from point-blank range in the 71st minute as United pressed for an equalizer.

They paid for their wastefulness, however, with strikers Louis Saha and Ruud van Nistelrooy also guilty of glaring misses.

New signing Park Ji-sung came on as a 70th-minute substitute for Ronaldo and he too missed a simple chance when he blazed over from close range. The South Korea midfielder left the pitch moments later nursing a cut to his face after colliding with Antlers goalkeeper Hitoshi Sogahata.

Park scored his first goal for United in Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Beijing Guo’an.

The Premier League team opened their Asian pre-season tour with a 2-0 victory over Hong Kong’s national side last weekend.

They play Urawa Reds, Japan’s best-supported side, in Saitama tomorrow.

Celtic Suffer Champions League Embarrassment

In London, Gordon Strachan was humiliated in his first game as Celtic manager when his team lost 5-0 at Artmedia Petrzalka of Slovakia in the first leg of their Champions League second qualifying round tie on Wednesday.

The result, one of the worst in the Scottish club’s history, left Celtic facing another costly exit from Europe’s most lucrative club competition in which they have consistently under-performed in recent seasons.

The 1967 European champions fell behind just before halftime when Juraj Halenar, who went on to complete a hat trick, put Artmedia in front.

In the second half the Slovakian side ran riot, scoring further goals through Blazej Vascak, Halenar (twice) and Martin Mikulic.

The pick of the goals was Halenar’s second, a superb volley straight from a corner, and Celtic’s misery was compounded by a suspected cheekbone fracture suffered by striker Chris Sutton.

Shelbourne held Romania’s Steaua Bucharest, the 1986 European champions, 0-0 in Ireland.

Serbian striker Igor Bogdanovic scored twice as Hungarian champions Debrecen upset Croatia’s Hajduk Split 3-0.

A fine individual goal from Obiora Odita gave Serbia and Montenegro champions Partizan Belgrade a 1-0 win over Moldovan side Sherif Tiraspol.

Luxembourg’s F91 Dudelange suffered a 6-1 thrashing at home by Austria’s Rapid Vienna, effectively ending their hopes of reaching the third qualifying round. Muhammet Akagunduz scored a hat trick for Rapid.

Russian league leaders Lokomotiv Moscow drew 1-1 at Macedonia’s Rabotnicki Skopje while Swedish side Malmo, the 1979 European Cup runners-up, edged Israeli visitors Maccabi Haifa 3-2. Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia were 2-0 winners in Albania against SK Tirana.

The second legs take place on Aug. 2 and 3, after the draw for the third qualifying round, which will be made today.