We're entering the best time of the football calendar

DaMarcus Beasley is one of two Americans in action in the Champions League this week, as Rangers looks to qualify for the group stage. David Cannon/Getty Images

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Remember the first time you walked into a multiplex? After a lifetime of subsisting on one screen and butter-sogged popcorn, you were suddenly bathed in the reddish hue of a massive digital marquee offering 20 movies.

Beverly Hills Cop? Purple Rain? Romancing the Stone? Even the snack bar seemed multi-ed, overflowing with a delicious buffet of sweets, like some Willy Wonka franchisee: Goobers or Good 'n' Plenty?

Anyway, that's how I feel again this week. That's how I feel every August, when the soccer world suddenly refills my plate. After months of feeding on MLS games, continental cups, and reruns of the 1989 FA Cup final between Liverpool and Everton (Ian Rush to the rescue!), the full monty is back.

The English Premier League kicks off in earnest on Saturday. (Maybe I'm the only one, but I don't care about the Community Shield at all.) After Tévez-gate, Thierry Henry's divorce/transfer, and the return of Roy Keane to the Premiership -- albeit in a manager's guise -- this might be the best season ever. Seriously, how delectable is the Manchester United-Sunderland fixture on Sept. 1? It's either going to be a Man U rout or a hideous 22-man pileup.

There are a bunch of Americans in the EPL, again. My money is on former New England Revolution midfielder Clint Dempsey, now with Fulham, to have a breakout year. Last season, Dempsey joined a Fulham side that was in a free-fall spiral under Chris Coleman. They just barely survived after Lawrie Sanchez took over. Maybe the change of leadership from the antsy, gum-smacking Coleman to the calm, cool, half-Ecuadorian Sanchez is just what the enigmatic, unorthodox Dempsey needs.

The Champions League second qualifying round finishes up this week, and the third qualifying round starts next week. There are Americans all over the Champions League this year.

DaMarcus Beasley didn't play in Rangers' 2-0 home win over Zeta of Montenegro last week, but he got his first minutes for his new club over the weekend -- bruising, battering minutes against Inverness that saw the 5-foot-8 winger slammed to the turf by a big galoot named Ross Tokely, like he was Cool Hand Luke being knocked down by George Kennedy. The diminutive American might feature on the return leg against Zeta on Tuesday. Maybe Zeta will play actual soccer, as opposed to the old-time hockey played in Scotland.

Next week, Benfica and its new boy-wonder, Freddy Adu, get into the Champions League act, taking on the winner of the FC Copenhagen-Beitar Jerusalem tie. Since completing his $2 million transfer to as Águias, Freddy has been all smiles.

But there are so many frown-inducing questions still: How much will he play? What happens when he gets kicked for the first time and the entire nation doesn't gasp? He has said repeatedly he wants to be treated as an adult. Well, in the Champions League and in the Portuguese league, he's going to be treated like nothing special. Maybe that'll be just what he needs to fulfill his potential.

The Bundesliga kicks off on Saturday. I'm not a huge Bundesliga devotee, but when German teams start buying Italian strikers (Bayern Munich's Luca Toni) and French midfielders (Bayern's Frank Ribéry), you almost have no choice but to check it out.

After all, the German league has spent years in the shadows of the English, Spanish, and Italian leagues, featuring the best players from Eastern Europe and a few Brazilians sprinkled in. (And Americans, like Steve Cherundolo, Benny Feilhaber and Heath Pearce.) Maybe now the Deutschlanders are getting serious about becoming a truly international league to reckon with. Maybe.

There's all that, plus this past weekend's starts of the French Ligue 1 (surprise: Lyon won), the Mexican Apertura, the Argentine Apertura, the Scottish Premier League and the Belgian league (whatever that's called). The Dutch Eredivisie and Turkish Süper Lig get under way next week, La Liga and Serie A soon after that.

The FIFA Under-17 World Cup in South Korea (bet you didn't know that was even happening, did you?), the MLS home stretch, Beckhamania comes to a stadium near you. I mean, I'm getting dizzy just writing about it.

My DVR is going to be recording 24/7. And I'm going to be on my couch every waking -- and several sleeping -- hours from now until May. I'll get fat from inactivity. I'll drink too much every time Roma lets another chance at ultimate glory slip away. My voice will go hoarse from swearing at whichever striker can't beat Wes "the Used Q-Tip" Brown. I'll pull my stub-my-toe celebration after every Dempsey goal.

It's going to be awesome. My name is Greg Lalas and I'm a soccer addict. No maybes about it.