What a big win, and a big loss! Conceding the goal in that manner added another chapter to the special Arsenal edition of 101 Extraordinary Ways To Concede A Goal. While the remarkable comeback in extremely trying circumstances completely countered the impact of that goal in the short term, the injury to Mertesacker will make the future games all the more challenging.

Now that my heart rate has sufficiently stabilized, it's time to go through some of the major talking points of our big, big win against Liverpool.
* To judge the game dispassionately, Liverpool took control of the midfield at a fairly early stage of the game and never looked back.

From 1974. Look at Phil Lesh's beard! And what is it about women from back then? The really long hair perhaps.

Anyway, London's in fine form, the sun's beating down gently and pleasantly. Best of all, now I'm cycling to and from work I don't get the downsides (sweaty underground trips) and enjoy the open air to the full.

One player continued his scoring pace while another got on the board for the first time as many of the members of the U.S. Men's National Team were in action this weekend. Here's some of the highlights:

• Clint Dempsey had a goal and an assist as Fulham captured a 2-1 win against Norwich.

I don't need much of a primer for this game. I know most of you feel the same way I do about Seattle. To say I want the Fire to kick them all around the pitch tonight would be an understatement. Not to mention pay them back for the US Open Cup Final loss last year in Seattle. Our Men in Red will certainly have multiple motivating factors to choose from tonight.

With the Olympics quickly approaching, it would seem the USWNT are prepared to take on whoever will be thrown at them when they head to London. Pia Sundhage's squad played a great game of football in front of a sold out crowd at PPL Park on Sunday, coming up with a big win against China. This match also marked the debut of new matching kits for both the USMNT and the USWMNT, who put them to good use.

BREAKING NEWS: The NSC Minnesota Stars will ring in 2012 with the unveiling of a new logo, designed by our good Friend-In-Football Kevin Joseph, on Mon Jan 9 at 7:30pm at Brits Pub in downtown Minneapolis. See you there!
STARTERS
The 2012 NSCAA Convention will take place January 11-15 in Kansas City MO.

Clint Dempsey scored a historic hat trick in a big win for Fulham over Newcastle United, while Brad Friedel and Tottenham agonizingly went down to Manchester City in a Premier League clash.

Karl Robinson and his Milton Keynes Dons side make the short journey down to the Lamex tomorrow night in what could be a pivotal match as both sides look to cement their position in the League 1 play-off positions. MK Dons sit one place above Stevenage going into the game, although the Dons are 5 points clear with the bonus of a game in hand.

I said we needed a big win yesterday and to field our strongest eleven. AVB picked the same side I suggested as Lampard, Drogba and Essien all returned to the starting eleven and Chelsea picked up a big win, three points, a clean sheet and more importantly fourth place in the Premier League with Arsenal playing Spurs this afternoon.

I said we needed a big win yesterday and to field our strongest eleven. AVB picked the same side I suggested as Lampard, Drogba and Essien all returned to the starting eleven and Chelsea picked up a big win, three points, a clean sheet and more importantly fourth place in the Premier League with Arsenal playing Spurs this afternoon.

Where is that quality win they asked... Klinsmann hadn't won a big time game yet. Then Wednesday happened.Dempsey, the leading US goalscorer in Europe, put one past Buffon, and the US runs away with a 1-0 win at Italy.78 years.11 games.1st win in all that time over Italy.More importantly, a big win for the US, for Klinsi, and just in case your friends say that Italy was "missing players", tell
[[ This is a content summary only.

By FRANCO PANIZO

The chances that an MLS club wins the CONCACAF Champions League this year got a little slimmer, as the Seattle Sounders crashed out of the tournament in embarrassing fashion.

Led by two goals from red-hot striker Herculez Gomez, Santos Laguna defeated the Sounders, 6-1, in the second leg of the quarterfinals series on Tuesday night to advance to the semifinals on aggregate, 7-3.

From 1974. Look at Phil Lesh's beard! And what is it about women from back then? The really long hair perhaps.

Anyway, London's in fine form, the sun's beating down gently and pleasantly. Best of all, now I'm cycling to and from work I don't get the downsides (sweaty underground trips) and enjoy the open air to the full.

Coming in hot on the heels of a big win over the LA Galaxy, the New England Revolution supporters almost felt like 3 points were a definite thing from FC Dallas. However, it was not to be. Regardless of looking like the better team for the majority of the game, a last minute poorly setup execution of a set-piece led to 3 points being taken away, and New England leaving their opening road trip with 3 out of a possible 6 points.

Clint Dempsey continues his dream season with another goal in Fulham's draw with Chelsea, while Tim Howard and Everton gets a big win over Sunderland.

The 1-1 tie on Wednesday showed yet again that it's parity time in MLS. DC United has barely lost to the extremely hot Kansas City and barely tied expansion Montreal. Even their big win against FC Dallas was not as easy as it looked. Most games this year will be close.

The team that reads its opponent well, devises a good strategy, and then has the discipline to execute it will win more often than not and rise toward the top.

Juventus eased past Roma in a 4-0 home triumph to take advantage of Milan's earlier slip, the Rossoneri barely managed a 1-1 home draw against Bologna thanks to a late Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalizer.

The Bianconeri are now three points ahead of Milan. Juve remain undefeated in the league and are still on course to achieve a precious domestic double if they can maintain this high level of intensity.

Sometimes when you're away, you tend to miss out on some of the good stuff. In this case, with a handy MLS Live subscription and an iPhone, nothing was missed...not the good and unfortunately not the bad (it turns out watching the Union game on an iPhone at a wedding was not such a good idea after all).

Chelsea's fixture against Newcastle tonight is a must for Di Matteo if he hopes to get the Blues back into 4th place and clinch the final Champions League qualifying slot.

However, with both star forwards Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres showing remarkable improvement in their form these past couple of days, the Italian tactician faces a hard decision in whom to start.

Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 19 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Sean Donahue and Ryan Lanigan contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.

1. SPORTING KANSAS CITY (7-1-0, 21 points)
Some rest should have done KC well after suffering their first loss before the break.

Clint Dempsey and Fulham got a big win over Liverpool, while Brad Friedel and Tottenham were victorious over Tim Ream and Bolton.

New York hopes to fend off LA this weekend. (Getty Images)

So here we are, at another Friday. We're nearly a quarter of the way through this season and now things being to get real interesting around the league. May is set to be a super-busy month for most of the clubs with games in the league, Open Cup games at the end of the month and for three clubs in Canada, a little Cup competition.

The KC Athletics went on the road in the first round of the US Open Cup and came away with a big win over the Real Colorado Foxes of the PDL 3-1 tonight. After falling behind 1-0 to the Foxes, the Athletics scored 3 unanswered to get the win. With the win, the Athletics will now go on the road again, this time to Florida, where they'll take on the defending USL-Pro champions, Orlando City next Tuesday.

Brian Edwards Degerfors' side exploded with a big win over Varnamo while Ryan Miller and Matt Pyzdrowski played to an uneventful draw.