U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals: Sounders will face LA Galaxy

The LA Galaxy now stand between the Seattle Sounders and a eighth trip to the U.S. Open Cup semifinals in the past 10 seasons. Behind a 5th minute goal by Raul Mendiola, the Galaxy went on the road to beat the Portland Timbers 1-0 on Wednesday.

That means the Sounders will travel to StubHub Center on July 20 for the quarterfinals. The match will be sandwiched between a two more Sounders road games, at the Timbers on July 17 and at Sporting Kansas City on July 24.

The Sounders and Galaxy have met twice before in the Open Cup, but have avoided one another for the past four seasons. The Sounders beat the Galaxy 2-0 in 2010 and 3-1 in 2011. Both meetings were at Starfire Stadium.

This is the sixth time in eight MLS seasons the Sounders have advanced to at least the quarterfinals of the US Open Cup. The five previous times they’ve advanced this far, the Sounders have made it to the finals, winning four of them. The Sounders also went to the Open Cup semifinals as a USL team in 2007 and 2008.

The Sounders are looking to become the first MLS team to win the Open Cup five times, which would also tie them with Bethlehem Steel and Maccabi Los Angeles for the most all time.