Ahead of next weekend's FIFA break, it has been revealed that Robbie Keane, Christian Wilhelmsson, and Dan Keat have all received call-ups from their respective countries. They join Jose Villarreal who has already received a call-up to the US U-20 team. Landon Donovan is also expected to join the United States senior team. All three players will leave Southern California on Sunday and return around October 17th ahead of the LA Galaxy's final road match of the season.
Robbie Keane returns to the Eire squad as their all time leading scorer with 54 goals in 120 appearances. He will captain Giovanni Trapattoni's squad in a pair of matches, first hosting Germany in Dublin next Friday, October 12th before hitting the road to take on the Faroe Islands in their third match of this qualification cycle. Ireland are currently third in their qualification group.
Second place in that same group is Sweden, by virtue of goal differential. Christian Wilhelmsson will join this Sweden squad who defeated Kazakhstan during the last international break, just like Ireland. They will play away to the Faroe Islands on the 12th, and then away to Germany on the 16th. Wilhelmsson last played for Sweden on August 15th, in a friendly against Brazil.
Dan Keat flies down to New Zealand, to take place in a pair of qualifiers in the Oceania region. The all-whites will play away to Tahiti on October 12th then hosting them four days later in Christchurch. New Zealand currently lead their group which also features the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia. The winner of this group will play the fourth place CONCACAF team for a World Cup spot. Australia competes in the Asian Football Confederation.