It has been a year of historic firsts and drought-breaking triumphs in the world game this season, both at home and abroad, in a year which will also be remembered as laying the foundations for what should be a second straight appearance by the Socceroos at the World Cup finals.
While Australia's campaign to reach the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa will ultimately be determined in 2009 - when the team plays its final five qualifiers - the team performed superbly under Pim Verbeek this year and with three wins out of three in the final stage of qualifying may only need to win two of its last five qualifiers to reach the world's greatest sporting event again.
But while such has been the improvement in Australia's performances on the world stage in recent years that qualification for the World Cup is now expected rather than hoped for - there were several other major triumphs in 2008 around the globe that were anything but expected.
In fact, four in particular stand out:
*Adelaide United becoming the first Australian club to make it through to the Asian Champions' League final;
*Portsmouth winning its first FA Cup final since 1939 and in the process breaking the stranglehold 'the big four' have had on the competition in recent years;
*Manchester United beating Chelsea on penalties to win the first All-English final in the European Champions' League; and
*Spain finally throwing off its bridesmaid tag and ending years of underachievement by winning Euro 2008 - its first success in a major tournament for 44 years.
Spain's success in the biggest football tournament staged this year was a major shock and resulted in it becoming the first team that has never won the World Cup to take over as the world's No.1 team on the FIFA rankings.
After cruising through the group phase without dropping a point against Sweden, Russia and defending champion Greece, the first major test of Spain's credentials was in the quarter-finals against reigning World Cup champion Italy.
And when the game finished in a 0-0 draw after extra time, Spanish fans must have been fearing the worst as the game went to penalties.
Not only is the quarter-final stage usually the time when their country bows out of major tournaments but Spain had not beaten Italy in a competitive match since 1920 and had suffered previous heart-breaking losses on penalties in major tournaments to Belgium in the 1986 World Cup finals, to England at Euro 96 and to South Korea during the 2002 World Cup finals.
But this time things did not go to the usual script for Spain, which won the shoot-out 4-2 with Iker Casillas saving two penalties.
A 3-0 win in the semi-final over Russia then put Spain into the final against Germany where a single goal from Liverpool striker Fernando Torres was enough to give his team a 1-0 win and a triumph on the international stage to go with the great success enjoyed by its club sides such as Barcelona and Real Madrid over the years.
Such was Spain's dominance that not only was it the tournament's highest-scoring team but nine of its players - goalkeeper and captain Casillas, defenders Carlos Puyol and Carlos Marchena, midfielders Xavi, Cesc Fabregras, Andres Iniesta and Marcos Senna, and strikers David Villa and Torres - were named in UEFA's team of the tournament.
At club level Europe's biggest tournament - the Champions' League - also ended in penalties as well as joy for Manchester United and despair for Chelsea.
Confirming the English Premier League's increasing status as the world's No.1 league, it was not only the first All-English final but also Chelsea's first appearance in the final having been bankrolled by the riches of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
But after the game had finished at 1-1 after extra time, Chelsea skipper John Terry had the chance to win the cup for his side when he stepped up to take the last penalty with United superstar Cristiano Ronaldo having missed for the Red Devils.
But as Terry took the most important kick of his life, he lost his footing and his shot flew wide.
It was just the let-off United needed as the shoot-out went to sudden death with Sir Alex Ferguson's team winning 6-5 on penalties after keeper Edwin Van De Sar saved Nicolas Anelka's effort.
Fittingly, United's third European Cup triumph came on the 50th anniversary of the loss of the bulk of its team in the Munich air disaster and capped off a memorable year in particular for Ronaldo, whose penalty miss in the final was the only blot on a season in which he established himself as the world's best player.
But for Chelsea, which controversially axed its most successful manager Jose Mourinho in favour of little-known Avram Grant, it capped off a frustrating year in which the club went without a trophy after also finishing runners-up to United in the EPL and losing to Tottenham in the League Cup final.
And Chelsea went down in the FA Cup at the quarter-final stage to Championship club Barnsley, which along with eventual winner Pompey and fellow Championship club Cardiff City helped bring the romance back to the world's oldest cup competition.
For the first time since 1995 the Cup was not won by one of United, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal and it was also the first time since 1991 that none of these teams featured in the final.
Instead, after Barnsley had somehow eliminated both Liverpool and Chelsea and Portsmouth had beaten United at Old Trafford, it was left to Pompey to face Cardiff in the final.
Portsmouth had not lifted the Cup since 1939 and Cardiff not since 1927 so it was one to savour for the neutrals with Portsmouth eventually winning 1-0 to give manager Harry Redknapp his first major trophy of his long career.
Adelaide's miraculous run to the Asian Champions League final was no less heroic than Portsmouth's dream FA Cup success but eventually ended in a humiliating 5-0 defeat to Japanese champion Gamba Osaka over a two-legged final.
But the Reds' amazing run, which also gave the club the chance to participate in the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan in December, put Australian football on the map in Asia and other than the Socceroos' World Cup success in Germany in 2006 did more to promote the game in Australia than any other recent event.