Asia's top teams get their final push towards the World Cup finals in South Africa underway on Saturday with Japan facing a tricky encounter in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia battling Ali Daei's Iran.
Of the 46 Asian Football Confederation nations who dreamed of making the finals in 2010, just 10 remain in the hunt -- Australia, Bahrain, Japan, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the two Koreas, UAE and Uzbekistan.
Four will qualify automatically, with the third-placed teams in the two groups of five playing-off for the right to meet the Oceania representative, likely New Zealand, for a spot at the global showpiece.
Japan, arguably the continent's football power and a team that has qualified for the last three World Cups, goes into its clash against Bahrain in Manama desperate to take all three points.
"As I have always said, this match will be the most important for us," said coach Takeshi Okada.
"I think it will be a tough match. But if we overcome this, our team can step up further. So we want to take the first match no matter what."
Okada hasn't had a particularly good lead-up, with a 3-1 home defeat by Uruguay last month raising concerns. But with Celtic's Shunsuke Nakamura back in the fold, albeit with a right ankle injury, he is confident.
"I see this (defeat to Uruguay) as a blessing in disguise. It's better to get a tough game in, rather than get thrashed by Bahrain right off the bat."
Bahrain are in better shape, beating Burkina Faso and United Arab Emirates in warm-ups.
With Australia playing a friendly against Holland on Saturday, the other Group A match sees Qatar take on Uzbekistan in Doha.
Qatar are without four key players -- the injured Musad Al Hamad and Yousef Ahmed and the suspended Wisam Rizq and Hussain Yasser.
Coach Jorge Fossati insists he has a strong complement of reserves.
"I know how important these players are to Qatar's performance and I was really hoping they would be able to play in this match," the Uruguayan told reporters.
"But as a coach I am expected to look for solutions and I will not call new players and make do with the reserves I have."
In Group B, plenty is at stake in Riyadh for heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran.
With South Korea, Asia's most successful team on the world stage having qualified for the past six World Cups, also in the group but not playing Saturday, dropping points could prove costly.
Iranian coach Ali Daei said he had a decent squad capable of going all the way.
"The current group of players are the best in Iranian football, they are highly motivated, ambitious and their only aim is the success of the national team," he told reporters.
"Saudi Arabia is our traditional opponent with good players and team composition, but we have prepared ourselves with tactical trainings for this encounter."
He has five European-based players at his disposal -- Vahid Hashemian, Ferydoon Zandi, Masoud Shojaei, Javad Nekounam and Andranik Teymourian.
The Saudis are aiming to qualify for their fifth consecutive World Cup and coach Nasser Al-Johar is expecting his players to deliver the goods.
"We want to win this group, and book qualification early," he told the FIFA website.
In the other Group B game, emerging power United Arab Emirates play North Korea in Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich sheikhdom still celebrating after Emirati billionaire Sulaiman al-Fahim bought Manchester City.
The final phase of Asian qualifying features 10 rounds of matches, culminating in June next year.