China tied with Finland 1-1 in the women's soccer tournament here Wednesday, which kicked off one day before the official opening of the 23rd World Universiade.

Neither of the two teams posted a serious offensive for the opponents for the first 60 minutes until Chinese forward Jiang Shixiao scored a right pass off a free kick.

Ten minutes later, Finland attacker Tjeder Daniela fired a powerful long shoot over the left side right into the net to equalize the scoreboard.

China failed in the ball possession, making few attempts for the goal, which is due to the players' lack of experience and confidence in their debut in the international matches, Gao Rongming, coach of the Chinese team, told Xinhua.

Same problems also bothered the Chinese men's football team in the Universiade. On Wednesday, the team was crushed 4-1 by Uruguay, the biggest rival within their Group C.

The two teams battled for 1-1 in the first 70 minutes until China's second central defender Ma Sanbao was severely injured in the ankles.

The Uruguayan made three successful attempts within five minutes and rewrote the scores to 4-1, leaving their Chinese peersin a stun of their sudden loss.

Jin Zhiyang, coach of China's men team, attributed the defeat to the strength disparity and poor preparation work for the unexpected injury of two defenders.

"We will learn well the lesson and prepare for the upcoming game against Italy on Friday", Jin said.

In another first round game within the group, South Africa, playing as a black horse, defeated former runner-up Italy 3-2.

Group A also saw Brazil beating South Korea 2-1 and Morocco stunned host Turkey 2-0. Russia scored the day's biggest victory of 6-1 over Ireland in Group B whereas Japan breezed over Thailand2-1.

Both Iran and the Czech Republic also savored their wins over Britain and Mexico 2-1 and 3-1 respectively in Group D.

Editor: Donald