In the MLS landscape, perhaps no fixture better represents a clash between the best of early MLS with the best of the modern league than when the LA Galaxy meet the Seattle Sounders.
The Galaxy are merely the most decorated MLS side in history. The Sounders are the most successful of the last half-decade. And it's no surprise when the two have met since Seattle entered the league in 2009, that sparks have flown.
In a decade-plus of meetings, the Galaxy have had the slight regular season edge (10W-8-L-10D), and have taken three of four postseason series. But the sides haven't met in the playoffs since 2015, when the Sounders dropped the Galaxy in the Knockout Round, in a match that — in retrospect — may have represented a transfer of power in the Western Conference from California to Cascadia.
Ahead of their latest meeting Wednesday night (11 pm ET | UniMás, Twitter; MLS LIVE on DAZN in Canada), here's a look at some of their most memorable ones.
2010: The Refund Game
The Sounders were still in the final stage of any honeymoon phase that accompanied their standard-raising entrance into MLS in 2009. It may have ended on May 8, 2010 when the Galaxy paid a visit. Jovan Kirovski, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunivant and Landon Donovan scored in a 4-0 victory before a crowd of more than 36,000 who witnessed Seattle's worst home MLS loss to that point. The game was so non-competitive that the club issued a refund to season ticket holders in the form of a credit toward 2011 season ticket purchases.
2014: Turnabout is Fair Play
In 2014, the Galaxy were still the established power on the field, but the Sounders were nipping at their heels for Western Conference supremacy. And in the final match of the regular season, they beat out the Galaxy directly for the club's first and, to date, only Supporters' Shield when Marco Pappa scored a late brace in a 2-0 Sounders win over LA. (The Sounders would've still earned the honor with a draw on the first tiebreak of total wins.)
The teams' meeting in the playoffs was even tighter than their regular season race for the Shield. In the end, the Galaxy won the two-leg Western Conference semifinal on Juninho's 54th-minute away goal in a 2-1 loss in Leg 2, after the Galaxy won Leg 1 by a 1-0 score on Marcelo Sarvas' goal.
2015: Win Via Knockout
A year after that semifinal series, the Galaxy and Sounders found themselves paired again in the postseason, this time in a Western Conference Knockout Round clash. And after three previous failures, the Sounders finally got their lone playoff triumph over the Galaxy in a 3-2 win, with Erik Friberg scoring the decider.
