As we ready ourselves for another pre-season, the first opportunity to view Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea comes when we visit Seattle on July 18.

We return to the USA two years after our last visit, with 2008's summer tour spent in the the Far East and Russia.

Now we return to America for the Italian's first trip on a tour that will take in games against AC Milan, Inter and Club America, as well as our first opponents, Seattle Sounders, who share the Qwest Stadium with American Football side the Seahawks.

The Sounders are new to the MLS, and kicked off their league season with a 3-0 home victory over the New York Red Bulls.

Keeping a clean sheet that day was former Spurs and Leicester stopper Kasey Keller, now captain of the Sounders, who have also recently recruited Freddie Ljungberg from his frustrating spell at West Ham. Both will be expected to play when the Blues arrive in town next month.

In keeping with Seattle's traditional colours, the Sounders wear a green shirt with blue and white trim, blue shorts and green socks. Their change kit is blue shirt, green and white trim with green shorts and blue socks.

The city, located in the north-west of the country, is renowned for its frequent rainfall and cloudy days, and has a population of over three million.

The standout feature of the Seattle skyline is the 184m Space Needle, which offers views over the city as well as Elliott Bay and nearby mountains.

Its image has been used in a number of TV programmes, including Frasier and Grey's Anatomy, while romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, grossed more than $200m at the box office in 1993.

Elsewhere in the arts, Seattle is the birthplace of rock legend Jimi Hendrix, as well as where grunge music took off, thanks to bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

It is five years since we were last in the Emerald City, when José Mourinho embarked on his first pre-season tour with the Blues as we ran out 4-2 winners over Celtic.

In front of over 30,000 fans, we fielded two different teams in either half, as goals from Alexei Smertin, Eidur Gudjohnsen and two from Mateja Kezman sealed victory.

Our line-ups were:

Cudicini; Johnson, Huth, Terry (c) Babayaro; Gérémi, Smertin, Parker; Cole; Gudjohnsen, Mutu.

Cech; Gérémi, Johnson, Huth, Babayaro; Smertin, Makelele, Lampard (c); Gudjohnsen (Ferreira), Kezman, Robben.

Chelsea first toured Seattle in 1967, when we defeated a local amateur side 5-0 at the Memorial Stadium. Then, 10 years later in 1977, we lost 2-0 to the original North American Soccer League Sounders at the Kingdome.

Once again we will play at Qwest Field stadium, which will be expanded to include the upper bowl for the fixture as tickets are expected to sell-out, with some 67,000 fans expected for the game.

'This will be unlike any international game ever played in the Pacific Northwest,' said Sounders FC majority owner Joe Roth, when the game was announced.

'Chelsea is one of the top clubs in the world, and they are playing the home team, our Sounders FC, backed by our loyal supporters. The atmosphere that afternoon will be incredible.'

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