Well, it's going to be a messy messy week in soccer, as the Champions' League transfer deadline looms on Thursday, followed by the English leagues' kickoff on Saturday. So, through this week I'll be putting up a lot about soccer, and not too much about other stuff (betcha the worldwide right is breathing a huge sigh of relief right now!).

To begin with though, a couple of the European leagues did get going this weekend, and I was able to catch the match between Olympique Marseille and En Avant Guingamp on one of the high-end cable channels. It was a fairly entertaining match, with several hair-raising saves by the the Guingamp 'keeper. At one point, he dove over a fairly well-struck volley, but got enough of the ball that it deflected off him straight down, hitting the turf with enough force to send it bouncing over the bar. Later, he made a good close-range save, but could only watch as a lurking Marseille striker somehow managed to put the rebound over from about 3 yards out. However, it was all for naught, and it was ironically a poor goal that won it for Marseille - a bad-angle shot that deflect off the near post and wandered across the line in injury time of the second half. Marseille, who are expected to be title contenders this year, probably just about deserved to win in the end.