It only took Seattle defender James Riley a second to remember what happened the last time the Los Angeles Galaxy played a regular season game in Seattle.
''I know there was a refund and it wasn't pretty,'' Riley said.
So consider the Sounders ready for Tuesday night's Major League Soccer season opener when Seattle hosts Los Angeles to begin the league's 16th season.
In May, the Galaxy beat the Sounders 4-0 in Seattle. The loss was so embarrassing that Seattle's management offered a refund to season ticket holders. Los Angeles followed up with a 3-1 home win in July, then dispatched the Sounders 3-1 in the two-game home-and-home playoff series.
In six meetings, Seattle has just one victory against Los Angeles.
A couple of victories by the Sounders would spice up what the league hopes to become a burgeoning rivalry between Seattle and Los Angeles to go along with the three-way Pacific Northwest rivalry involving Seattle, Portland and Vancouver.
''We want to exorcise a few ghosts of some games from last year against L.A.,'' Seattle goalkeeper Kasey Keller said. ''It's a different team for them, a different team for us. (We're) just looking forward after a long preseason of getting it going and getting it going right at home.''
It was on Seattle's raucous home field that Los Angeles provided perhaps the lowest of lows in the Sounders season.
Shortly before leaving to join the U.S. World Cup team, Landon Donovan and his Galaxy teammates put on a clinic in Seattle that left the team's ownership enraged.
Donovan had three assists and a goal in the rout.
''There's a lot at stake because obviously they are the team that knocked us out of the playoffs so we want to come out and we want to play well for that reason,'' Seattle coach Sigi Schmid said. ''We also want to play well because it is the opening game of the season. We want to play well because it's three points. ''
While Donovan and David Beckham are back to control the midfield for Los Angeles, the Galaxy will display a new look up front with the arrival of Juan Pablo Angel from New York and Chad Barrett from Toronto. That duo replaces Edson Buddle, who moved on to play in Germany.
Even with the new strikers, the Sounders don't believe the Galaxy will play much differently.
''We enjoy it. We got to play twice there last year in front of big crowds and I think our team thrives off that,'' Donovan told reporters in Los Angeles. ''I expect us to perform well.''
Seattle may be short-handed as Schmid said midfielder Brad Evans (hamstring) and forward Steve Zakuani (hip) would be game time decisions. Both were injured last Wednesday in Seattle's final preseason game against Colorado.
