Edson Castillo is back in familiar territory on Tuesday night as he seeks to earn national team minutes in Venezuela's push for their first ever qualification for the FIFA World Cup.
Castillo didn't play in Venezuela's gallant draw away in Brazil on Friday morning with head coach Fernando Batista sticking with Tomas Rincon and Yangel Herrera in central midfielder.
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Though the Chiefs travelled all the way to South America, he wasn't even named on the bench.
On Tuesday night (23h00), La Vinotinto host Chile at the Estadio Monumental de Maturin – the home of Monagas SC, the club where he played his club football prior to making the switch to Chiefs in July.
Castillo also had another two spells before with Monagas in 2018 and 2020 so remains a familiar figure in the city of Maturin.
This is where he will hope he gets to earn his seventh cap after having won his previous two years ago against Brazil.
Beyond earning his next cap, Castillo would be glad to return to club on Saturday having left Venezuela in the top six positions in the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers which carry the automatic qualification tickets.
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The team finishing seventh in the South American qualifiers goes into a draining inter-continental play-off.
Venezuela carry the unfortunate tag of the being the only South American country that has never qualified for the World Cup.
Castillo is back in the national team after an impressive start to his career at Chiefs where he has played every minute of all but two of the club's 12 games to date with a return of four goals.
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