Germany pins cup hopes on Prinz

(CNN) -- World Cup encounters between Germany and Argentina are usually tense, later stages affairs, such as last year's quarterfinal clash in which the hosts ousted the tournament favorites on penalties after a 1-1 draw, or the 1990 final in which West Germany claimed the title with a 1-0 win over Diego Maradona's defending champions.

Which made Germany's 11-0 win over the South Americans in the opening game of the 2007 Women's World Cup in Shanghai, China, all the more surreal.

Argentina's players may have been wearing the sky blue and white striped shirts of the Albiceleste, but the women's game in South America clearly still has a long way to go.

For defending champions Germany, however, Monday's game, won by a tournament record margin, was little more than a warm-up for tougher challenges to come.

With the U.S. keen to regain the title they surrendered on home soil four years ago and hosts China also setting their sights on glory, Germany will have their work cut out to repeat their 2003 success.

While Sandra Smisek also grabbed a hat-trick in Monday's rout, the undoubted star of the show for Germany was veteran striker Birgit Prinz, whose three goals took her all-time record goals tally for the national team to 113 goals in 166 appearances.

With 12 goals in finals tournaments, the 29-year-old also equalled American Michelle Akers' record for World Cup goals and will now be an odds-on favorite to better that mark before the end of the tournament -- although she faield to do so in Germany's 0-0 draw with England on Friday.

More worryingly for opponents, Prinz also believes the is still room for Germany to improve. "Would I say we played to perfection? No, I wouldn't say that," she said after Monday's game.

"OK, we scored more goals than we ever thought we would today, but we still made too many mistakes. Everything has to come together for perfection."

Prinz has had a stellar career in the women's game, winning FIFA's world player of the year award for three straight years from 2003 to 2005 and being named Germany's top player every year from 2001 to 2007.

She has also been part of four European championship-winning German sides and played in two World Cup finals (losing to Norway in 1995), winning the Adidas Golden Ball as top scorer in 2003.

In 2003 she also found herself caught up in a bizarre episode in which Perugia president Luciano Gucci tried to sign her for his Serie A men's side. Perhaps wisely, Prinz had nothing to do with what amounted to a premeditated PR stunt.

In fact, while Prinz has regularly shared FIFA stages with the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldinho and performed tirelessly as an ambassador for women's football, she offers a refreshing alternative to the money-driven, superstar culture of the men's game, having chosen to spend most of her career with her hometown club, Frankfurt, while working part-time as a physiotherapist.

"It's a fact that there are eleven people on the pitch. You can still win even if the superstar has a bad game," she told an interviewer last year. "But a superstar is nothing without the team."

But a second World Cup success would only make it harder for women's football's reluctant superstar to play down her achievements. E-mail to a friend