With most of the European football leagues out of action because of the World Cup qualifiers, attention is turning to the race to reach Russia 2018.
After Thursday's win against Iraq, Australia is preparing to face the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.
Before then, though, much of Central and South America and Europe will have countries in action.
On Saturday, the United States visits Saint Vincent-Grenadines, Canada is on the road at Honduras, and Mexico is away against El Salvador.
On Sunday in Europe, among other games, England coach Sam Allardyce has his first match in charge away at Slovakia, Denmark takes on Armenia, and Kazakhstan faces Poland.
The final round of the NRL regular season continues Friday night with the Canterbury Bulldogs taking on South Sydney.
There is everything still to play for to determine the top two, the top four and who gets home advantage in the finals.
But in a match with just pride on the line, a new NRL initiative will be looked at in a competitive game for the first time.
The captains of the Saint George Illawarra Dragons and the Newcastle Knights will be able to challenge a referee's call and ask for a review.
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg explained why it is being looked at.
"We trialled this in the 20s (Junior Rugby League competition) for a number of years, but we didn't have the technology to sit aside it. Now we've got the technology to use, so ... We've been working on this quietly behind the scenes for a number of months, and we're ready to trial it. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how it works."
Each team will be allowed one incorrect challenge in each half, but, as in cricket, if they continue to get their challenges right, they can keep going.
The AFL finals start next weekend.
On Sunday, Australia's cricketers will be looking to end their tour of Sri Lanka on a high.
After a disastrous Test series, the One Day squad goes into Sunday's fifth and final match with the series already secured after Wednesday's victory gave Australia a safe 3-1 lead.
But with neither side able to score 300 so far, Australia's stand-in captain, David Warner, says the sport needs to do more to encourage spectators.
England set a new One Day record score of 444 earlier in the week, and Warner says that is the kind of entertainment fans deserve.
"That's what I love about cricket. I love that kind of atmosphere. And that's why, as a youngster, I went to watch the game. But if you come here and play five games like that on wickets like they are here at the moment, it's going to be very, very tough to draw big crowds all the time."
In tennis, the US Open continues in New York over the weekend, with players having faced sweltering conditions over the first few days.
Britain's Johanna Konta collapsed on court in 31-degree heat during her second-round match.
She managed to recover after her health scare but said having suffered a similar experience before -- being short of breath and suffering muscle spasms -- helped keep her calm.
"Yeah, so I knew straight away that I needed to get ice on myself and try to get my breathing down and calm myself down, and, in turn, my muscles and my heart. Yeah, so that's what happened. It was very embarrassing."
The 13th-seeded Konta managed to recover to beat her Bulgarian opponent Tsvetana Pironkova.
Luckily for the players, cooler cloudy weather is being forecast for New York over the remainder of the weekend.
