Germany smashed Argentina in opening match

With nine world champions in their starting XI, Germany (Deutschland)
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​easily defeated Argentina in the opening match of the FIFA Women’s
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​World Cup China 2007 tonight. The Germans won 11:0 at the Shanghai
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​Hongkou Football Stadium. Captain and three-time FIFA Women’s World
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​Player of the Year Birgit Prinz scored three times.
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​“It was much more straightforward than we thought it would be,
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​although it was made easy for us because they gave us so much room,”
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​said Prinz. “The coaches did tell us that beforehand, but we didn’t
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​really want to believe it. Would I say we played to perfection? No, I
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​wouldn’t say that. OK, we scored more goals than we ever thought we
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​would today, but we still made too many mistakes. Everything has to
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​come together for perfection.”
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​Deutschland’s 21-player roster features 12 FIFA World Cup champions
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​from USA 2003, including Prinz who won both the adidas Golden Shoe and
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​adidas Golden Ball awards. Champion Linda Bresonik, meanwhile, is one
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​of two alumni from the FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship Canada
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​2002. The other is Anja Mittag, a late substitute who made her FIFA
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​Women’s World Cup debut.
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​Deutschland are favourites in Group A while Argentina, England and
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​Japan are battling it out for second place and a spot in the
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​quarter-final. England and Japan play tomorrow on 11 September while
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​all four teams play their next match on 14 September.
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