Short takes
• The Bundesliga is the last of the big European leagues to return for the season, with games beginning this weekend. Everyone expects Bayern Munich to win the title, even though the perennial champion has a new coach, Niko Kovac, and lost standout players Douglas Costa and Arturo Vidal. Kovac convinced striker Robert Lewandowski to stay, at least. The rest of the team is so solid that FiveThirtyEight.com gives Bayern an 82 percent chance of winning the league.
• After another heartbreaking loss last week, NWSL bottom-dweller Sky Blue FC still has a chance to be the first women's pro soccer team in the U.S. to finish a season winless. Sky Blue is 0-15-5 this year. Almost as astonishing is the Washington Spirit, which at 2-16-4 somehow has even more losses. The Spirit fired coach/General Manager Jim Gabarra this week. Sky Blue may just fold the whole franchise.
• French wunderkind Kylian Mbappe scored twice for Paris Saint-Germain in its Ligue 1 opener last weekend, but some doubt he'll stay at PSG. UEFA could still fine Paris Saint-Germain for breaking financial fair play rules, the European version of the salary cap. A ruling should come this week. PSG could be forced to send Mbappe back to AS Monaco, where Real Madrid would be waiting to snap him up.
