And we're back. After the much deserved day off here it's time to get back in the swing of things and take a quick look at what happened in week 11 in Major League Soccer. With so many games there was a good amount of movement in the rankings here.

Big moves this week were RSL moving down, Dallas moving up.

Off to the West Midlands for Liverpool to face Mick McCarthy's Wolves.

After a flurry of matches to end 2010 and start 2011, six days without a match has seemed like an eternity.

It certainly hasn't been helped by the continuous dry hump that the Luis Suarez saga has become I'm appreciative of the the calculated approach Damien Comolli and the owners have been taking, not so much of the constant coverage of absolutely nothing happening other than everyone having an exclusive report about absolutely nothing happening.

The Sounders are traveling north of the border this weekend to take on Toronto FC. I'm not going to lie. I expect a big win on Saturday. Toronto, even at home, is one of the easiest match-ups in the league and an opportunity to claw back some points the Sounders left on the table last weekend when the Vancouver Whitecaps came to town.

Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 18 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Brian O'Connell and Sean Donahue contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.

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Another week down, another week with the top clubs remaining on top. The playoff race in Major League Soccer is certainly hotter than it has ever been.

I'll keep the intro nice and sweet too. Here's how I see things after this week.

Team Rank Record (W-L-T) Comments 1 (1) 16-3-10 58 pts.

If that game is anything to go by, I guess I should miss more matches! In fact, the Mrs. did cheekily make such a suggestion but it was stared down.

More importantly, it's three big points at a very difficult venue as Arsenal continue to make light work of really tough games. If the reverse phenomenon can be stemmed the title will certainly end up at the Emirates.

The German regular season came to a close over the weekend, with Steve Cherundolo and Hannover scoring a big win over Timothy Chandler and Nurnberg, while David Yelldell and Duisburg were on the losing end at Bochum.

On June 7th, the Spanish national team played the second of two international friendlies in the Americas. The first was an energetic 4-0 victory over the United States in Boston; the second, in Caracas, another dominating win against the Venezuelan team.

The match was noteworthy in contrast to the previous set of friendlies played by Spain since the World Cup.

In a way we are at the midway point of the season. Most of the teams are at 17 games while a few others have played more or there are some that have played a few less. Still, it feels like halfway to me.

There weren't a lot of changes in the top half of the rankings this week. Only a slight flip-flop between a couple clubs.

David Beckham and the Galaxy scored a big win over the Fire this weekend. (Getty Images)

To put it lightly, that was interesting. MLS had a fairly big week for the second week in a row as we gear towards the playoff push here in the second half of the season. The week opened with a massive rout in New York and ended on a high-note (at least looks wise) in Portland.

RSL hopes to get back on track with a win in LA. (Getty Images)

Week 29 in Major League Soccer has already gotten off to a bang with last night's games. Out of nowhere the Chicago Fire go to Salt Lake and beat up on RSL in a 3-0 win. No one saw that coming and sure the officiating was questionable to some, you have to give Frank Klopas and his club some credit for continuing to make this playoff race an interesting one.

The English Premier League break because of the FA cup commitment could actually be a good moment for Chelsea in order to find their form back to their highest standard especially after they successfully trashed their opponents in the cup, Ipswich Town, with an amazing 7-0 scoreline.

Although stating that the victory won't guarantee anything, the Blues' coach, Carlo Ancelotti, hopes that at least the big win would motivate and bring confidence for Chelsea's players before facing the real test against Blackburn Rovers in the league.

Jonathan Bornstein and Tigres are riding high after a big win over Cruz Azul while Pachuca's American duo of Jose Francisco Torres and Herculez Gomez rebounded with a win over Edgar Castillo's Puebla.

Oguchi Onyewu and Twente took a an icy step towards the Europa League round of 16 with a big win over Rubin Kazan, while Maurice Edu got the start for Rangers in their disappointing home draw against Sporting.

The Comets did a lot to help their playoff hopes last night in Chicago as they won their second game in as many nights 23-7 over the Chicago Riot. The win was the Comets biggest win of the season, by a total of 16 points. In the Comets previous 6 wins they'd won those games by a combined 16 points.

Carlos Bocanegra helped anchor a big win for Saint Etienne snapped a winless streak in Ligue 1 while Quentin Westberg watched Evian's draw with Clemont Foot from the bench.

Mikkel Diskerud keyed a big win for Stabaek over Rosenborg in the Eliteserien while Steve Clark earned Man of the Match honors for Honefoss who fought to a scoreless draw with Sandefjord in the 1. Division.

With the longest active losing streak in the Premier League at three games, Bolton have the potential to end their last five matches of the year with absolutely zero points to show for it. Blackpool need the full three points from a big win in order to have any shout of staying in the top flight for another year.

Image by Davic via FlickrSpeaking with reporters after Galaxy's practice, David Beckham expressed his delight in Real Madrid pulling off a big win against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey.
"It was great to see, being a Real Madrid fan, seeing them win that game," said Beckham.

Both FC Dallas and Portland will be coming off big wins when they meet Sunday at 3pm Pacific for their first meeting at JELD-WEN Field in Portland. Dallas, coming off an emotional week that saw them claim at least a little revenge for last year's MLS Cup loss against Colorado, will be looking to expand on that momentum.

Hello Sports fans. Err....I mean Sounders fans. It's a beautiful weekend in the Sound and Sporting Kansas City, the sacrificial lambs of MLS, are coming to visit Quest/Century Link Field. They'll be playing a Sounders team coming off a bit of rest and hopefully fired up to get a big win after a disappointing tie against arch-rivals Portland Timbers.

Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 18 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Brian O'Connell and Sean Donahue contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.

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The second set of games got underway from Group A as a crowd of more than 50,000 came out to cheer on the home squad in Frankfurt. France and Germany each got a win to secure a berth in the quarterfinals.

Sinclair shows her disappointment as France celebrates their big win.

A 66th minute goal by ex-Timber Alan Gordan cancels out Kenny Cooper's first half strike and Jeremy Hall is sent off in the final minutes as the Timbers and Earthquakes share the points.

Maurice Edu and Rangers will look to get a big win over Inverness CT away from home while Dominic Cervi will be on the bench for Celtic who face Dundee Untied at home.

Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 18 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Brian O'Connell and Sean Donahue contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.

1.

WVU opened up their season with a big win over Virginia. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo)

Men's college soccer got off to a bang this past weekend with plenty of quality games across the board. We got out first #1 vs #2 battle of the year and the defending national champions Akron opened up with a big win to show they still have a lot to prove.

Conor O'Brien earned his first start and netted his for goal for SonderjyskE in a big win over Odense while Michael Parkhurst picked up an assist for Nordsjaelland as they demolished Lyngby.

Hurricane Irene wrecked the east coast and did a little number in these MLS Power Rankings.

Between the top clubs winning and most of the teams in the middle not playing due to the hurricane, there wasn't a lot of movement. Still, Seattle and Dallas made a statement this past week that they are still in the Supporter's Shield race.

Some more involved coverage of both the Huskies men's and women's soccer teams is on the to-do list here at the Heart, but in the meantime I thought it was worth highlighting the fact that the men's team has entered the NSCAA national rankings at #23 after starting the season 2-0-1. The last time the Huskies were ranked was a brief period in October last season when the Huskies were also ranked #23rd after a big win over Portland.

<a href="http://www.arsenalinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/arsenalvswansea.png"><img src="http://www.arsenalinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/arsenalvswansea.png" alt="" title="arsenalvswansea" width="496" height="285" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3241" /></a> While the two Manchester clubs continue to thrash everything in their sights, Arsenal could only scrape a 1-0 win over Swansea courtesy of a bad mistake by their goalkeeper.

Virginia Tech celebrates their big win over UNC. (Photo via Hokiesports.com)

You can tell it is early in the season because change keeps taking place. College soccer this week will have a new number one after UNC fell over the weekend at Virginia Tech. Last year we only had two teams grace the top of the rankings, this year it seems to be a curse to have the big target on your back.

Mason Trafford and Josh Wicks featured in a losing effort as IFK Mariehamn went down to TPS while Jeremy Vuolo and AC Oulu got a big win in the Ykkonen.

The race for the Big Ten championship is just starting out, but early indications are that Indiana has every intention of regaining its place as the conference's premier program.

The No. 7 Hoosiers sent a big messsage on Friday by knocking off Penn State in their Big Ten opener, posting a 1-0 victory to stay unbeaten on the season.

Mamadou Diouf scored his sixth goal of the season for UConn. (Photo via UConn Athletic Department/Stephen Slade)

Conference play is heating up around the country but we still had a few big out of conference games that were fun to take note this past weekend in college soccer. Below are a few of the bigger results from a jam-packed weekend.

Good morning from Dublin where, after a few days of nice warm weather, the Gods have punished us with monsoon season. I could have sworn some bloke in a big boat was rounding up two of every animal last night.

Anyway, while we put away the sun-loungers and the tanning oils for another year, we can start to look ahead to the North London derby tomorrow.

Stewart Downing believes the Liverpool fans deserve to see entertaining football, insisting the team is trying their very best having notched 15 goals so far this season.
The Reds currently sit in fifth place in the Premier League table on 13 points after a 2-0 win over Everton in the Merseyside derby last Saturday.

Big win on Saturday, eh?

Now, for some perspective.

• Seattle played without their top three scorers. Fredy Montero, Alvaro Fernandez and Mauro Rosales have combined for 24 goals and 20 assists this season. Seattle may be the league's deepest team, but that's still a big gap to fill.

We always thought it could be a big win for both clubs by Newcastle loaning out some of their top young stars to the club just over the River Tyne Gateshead. Jeff Henderson on loan at Gateshead And Gateshead are flying high at the moment in second plave in the English Conference, after 15 games, and just 2 points behind leaders Wrexham.

The Galaxy have had the top spot wrapped up for a while. The Sounders and Real Salt Lake have also had their playoffs spot for a few weeks. Now there is one position remaining that 4 teams have a shot at with New York in the best position to take it.

The East side is kinda crazy right now.