World Cup Sees Players Pray Thankfulness to God as Korea, Brazil Win

|PIC1|An exciting day in Germany at the World Cup has seen reigning champions Brazil set a new record for the most consecutive matches won in World Cup history (8), as they beat Croatia, as well as 2002 surprise team South Korea overcome their first hurdle, in defeating a tough Togo team.

South Korea now top their group after 1998 World champions, France, played out a stalemate, nil-nil draw with Switzerland.

At half-time the Koreans were 1-0 down after Togo's Mohamed Kader controlled the ball skilfully and fired home a powerful shot.

The turning point came just after half-time when Jean-Paul Abalo's second booking saw him sent off. With Togo reduced to ten men, South Korea took full advantage. With a increased urgency about their play, Korea won the game with goals from Chun-Soo Lee on 54 minutes, and Ahn on 72 minutes.

|PIC2|Thousands of Korean supporters filling the stadium rejoiced at the final whistle, as a number of Korean players bent on their knees on the pitch and prayed thankfulness to God.

South Korea's Lee Young-pyo was the image of faithfulness, as he was pictured praying immediately after the game had ended.

Young-pyo had previously said the number of Christians in the Korean squad would have a positive effect on their World Cup challenge.

"In 2002 we had six or seven players who were Christian. Now we have 12," Lee told reporters on Sunday as the squad prepared for their opening game.

According to Lee, the players meet on a regular basis to discuss their faith, although it was difficult for them to get to church during the intense training |PIC3| programme coach Dick Advocaat had put them through in Scotland and Germany.

Song Chong Gug, another one of the stars of South Korea’s victory, was also seen falling to his knees immediately at the final whistle, as he prayed to God.

Elsewhere, Brazil, another prayerful side with many members boasting publicly about their faith in Jesus Christ, won a challenging competition against a resistant Croatia team, as Kaka scored a 44th minute winner for the South-American side.

Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira paid tribute to Croatia after the game.

Parreira said after the match: “I think the game was balanced, we had more shots on goal but we had a certain difficulty imposing our own rhythm.”