For those countries that underperformed at the World Cup - notably England, Italy and France - last night's opening Euro 2012 qualifiers offered hope of a fresh start and they will be keen to press on in the second round of back-to-back matches on Tuesday.
At least any hangover from South Africa won't be made worse by the droning of the vuvuzela, which has been banned from all the major competitions run by Uefa. Symbolically, that draws a line under the 2010 World Cup - something many countries might like to do, too.
Italy and France have brought in new coaches after their South African disasters, but England have stuck with Fabio Capello and that is not necessarily a bad thing. The clamour for a change of management ignored the dearth of potential replacements, as well as the historical example that England had their best tournament of the modern era under the same coach who had led them ignominiously only two years before.
At the 1988 European championships, Bobby Robson's England exited at the group stage after losing all three group games, to the Netherlands, the Soviet Union and Ireland. Yet Robson was left in charge and two years later he led England to the semi-finals of the World Cup and that famously agonising defeat on penalties by Germany.
The current England model has its first away match of the qualifying campaign on Tuesday with a trip to Switzerland, not the easiest place to visit in recent years. Early in World Cup qualifying, England had a stunning 4-1 win in Croatia and, having never reached those heights again under Capello, it would be encouraging if they could find a similar performance in Basel.
England's away form in World Cup qualifying was strong, but then so much of the build-up under Capello seemed promising, only to fall flat in South Africa. They played two teams at a similar level to Switzerland in that campaign, winning in Croatia and then losing 1-0 in Ukraine when qualification was assured. England's true level probably is somewhere between those two results.