World Cup qualifying returns on Saturday and, with it, comes the welcome sight of the big stars back in national team colors and, for some, the heartache of wondering whether their international career is over.
Qualifying for the 2010 championship in South Africa picks up speed with two rounds in Europe and South America and also matches in Africa, Asia and the North and Central America region.
The games give some teams, European champion Spain and England, for example, a great chance to pull away from their rivals while surprise South American leader Paraguay is confident of staying four points ahead of Brazil and Argentina.
After winning Euro 2008 to end 44 years without a title, Spain still looks strong and has a maximum six points in European Group 5 and already has a two-point advantage over Turkey and Belgium.
The Spaniards are also on a run of 25 games unbeaten and hope to continue that with victories at Estonia and Belgium. New coach Vicente del Bosque has stuck with most of European title winning squad and declined to call up 18-year-old rising FC Barcelona star Bojan Krkic.
England wasn't there when Spain won Euro 2008 because it failed to qualify. Fabio Capello has revived its hopes of getting to the World Cup however, surviving a shaky spell of friendlies to win 4-1 at Croatia - the team that stopped it reaching the Euros.
"I hope we have finally knocked the monkey off our back," Capello said in reference to fears that England would continue to struggle. "Victory was important, because we had lost the English spirit, our aggressiveness, the boldness, our confidence. After failing to qualify for the European Championship we were full of fear, notably when we played at Wembley. I knew we would play better abroad and we did."
England returns to Wembley on Saturday confident it will beat Kazakhstan and then move on to Belarus to make it 12 points from four games. England has never played either nation but Michael Owen won't be there to mark those two minor milestones because Capello hasn't selected him.
The former Liverpool and Real Madrid striker has scored four times for struggling Newcastle but even that hasn't convinced the Italian coach that he was worthy of a place, despite his 40 goals in 89 England appearances dating back a decade.
Alessandro Del Piero is another veteran who is scoring for his club, Juventus, but he has been overlooked by national coach Marcello Lippi for qualifying matches against Bulgaria and Montenegro.
Injured and unavailable were goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, Mauro Camoranesi, Andrea Pirlo, Fabio Grosso and Marco Materazzi.
The coach who led the Italians to their World Cup triumph in Berlin two years ago has called up a newcomer, Giuseppe Rossi, whose 11 goals helped Villarreal finish second in the Spanish league last season.
"He's ready. I would have called him up before," Lippi said. "He's 21 but he has a lot of maturity and international experience."
Having conceded two late goals in a 2-3 loss at home to Denmark, Portugal hopes the return of Ronaldo will lift the team from fourth place in Group 1 by beating Sweden and surprise group leader Albania. The winger whose 42 goals helped Manchester United win the English Premier and Champions Leagues last season, appears to have overcome the acrimony he faced by saying he wanted to leave for Real and is back to form after three months out with an ankle injury.
Of the other leading contenders, Germany tops its group but needs to emphatically beat nearest rivals Russia and Wales to restore confidence that it can win the title for the fourth time, and France - fourth in Group 7 - hopes a victory in Romania will revive its hopes.
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily October 9, 2008)