The first men's games were between the Czech Republic and Turkey, and Japan and Russia.
Russia is the defending champion having beat Canada for the gold medal in the last Universiade in China. But today Russia got a scare as they narrowly beat Japan 3-2. I am still waiting for the boxscore to be published.
Turkey got off to a terrible start, much like I predicted, as they were pushed around like a 18 year old bully picking on a 4 year old. They lost 16-0 and from early reports, it was just an awful game. The game was disrupted for 40 mins when there was a power outage. The officials, at the time of the power outage, stated that the power would be back on in 10 minutes (typical Turkey).
The women's games also started today featuring the USA's first ever university team at the Universiade taking on Slovakia. Team USA however fell short 5-1 to a veteran Slovakian team.
Turkey's first ever university team (coached by my old coach in Turkey) didn't get the start they had hoped for falling 10-0 to the United Kingdom.
Team Canada Women are currently playing Finland and after one period they are down 1-0. In the 2009 China games, Canada beat Finland 5-0.
Team Canada Men are currently playing Slovenia. The live scoring does not indicate what period the game is in, but I can tell you Canada is up 5-0!
On a side note it is important to understand that most of the hockey teams from Europe consist of professional players who happen to be going to university while playing semi-pro/pro for a club team in their respective country. It is not like in the USA or Canada where you play for your university team.
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