West Ham United defenders Razvan Rat and Winston Reid face testing 2014 FIFA World Cup Play-Offs in November.
Romania captain Rat and New Zealand skipper Reid are both two games from Brazil, but face stern tests if they are to lead respective countries out in South America next summer.
Rat's Romania will take on Greece after securing second spot in European qualifying Group D behind the Netherlands last week. Romania beat Andorra and Estonia to pip Hungary and Turkey to the runners-up position. Now, the left-back is preparing to face a Greek side who won eight and lost just one of their group-stage fixtures.
Greece will host the first leg on Friday 15 November before Rat and company welcome Fernando Santos's side to Bucharest on Tuesday 19 November.
The other European Play-Offs will see Portugal take Sweden, Ukraine face France and Iceland tackle Mladen Petric's Croatia. If the ties remain level after two legs, away goals will settle things, with extra-time and penalties used if the scores remain level.
Meanwhile, Reid's New Zealand finshed top of the Oceania Round Three qualifying group with a perfect six wins out of six. Now, the Kiwis face Mexico over two legs after El Tri qualified for the Intercontinental Play-Off in dramatic fashion.
Mexico faced elimination when they lost 2-1 in Costa Rica and Panama were leading the United States by the same scoreline going into added-time. However, two late American goals sent Panama spinning out and handed Mexico a lifeline as they finished fourth in the final CONCACAF region qualifying group.
The first leg will take place at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City on Thursday 14 November before the All Whites welcome the Central Americans to the Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Wednesday 20 November.
Mohamed Diame's Senegal face an uphill battle to qualify after falling to a 3-1 African Play-Off first-leg defeat by Ivory Coast earlier this month. Senegal will host the second leg in the Moroccan city of Casablanca on 16 November after being banned from playing the tie at home due to crowd trouble at an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against the same opposition last year.
A number of other West Ham players - Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Joe Cole and Matt Jarvis - will hope to force their way into the World Cup reckoning for England who have already qualified for Brazil.