Jamie Clary and Jamey Yawn at the USMNT-Poland match at the 2002 World Cup. (Photo courtesy of Jamie Clary)
By Michael Lewis
FrontRowSoccer.com Editor
PORTLAND – When Major League Soccer held its first championship game in 1996, Jamie Clary, Jamey Yawn and two friends felt they had a responsibility to the sport to be in Foxborough, Mass.
They had lived through the dark ages of soccer in the United States, from 1985 to 1996, when there was no first-tier professional league.
“We made a commitment in 1996,” Clary said in an email interview on Friday. “We were soccer fans who lived in Nashville. We had lived through the dark days of no major league soccer league in the United States, during the days that no foreign leagues were being shown on TV. We wanted soccer to survive in the U.S. So, we went to the first championship game to show that we are fans of the league.”
So, Clary, Yawn, Jamie Bertotti, Lee Edwards made the journey from Tennessee to Massachusetts as they were among 34,643 hearty souls who endured a nasty Nor’easter and watched D.C. United rally from a two-goal, second-half deficit to best the LA Galaxy in extratime, 3-2, in one of the most legendary encounters in league history.
“We attended in 1996 because we were fans of soccer and fans of MLS,” Clary said. “All four of us had traveled for World Cup games in 1994 and the Olympics in 1996. We left MLS Cup in 1996 and pledged to each other ‘Every Year.’ ”
The foursome attended the 1997 MLS Cup, another “wet experience,” Clary remembered. Bertotti and Edwards dropped out in 1998, but Yawn and Clary kept their commitment.
On Saturday, they will attend their 26th MLS Cup when the Portland Timbers meet New York City FC at Providence Park at 3 p.m. ET (ABC).
They have kept coming back year in and year out. Clary, 53, is mayor of Hendersonville, Tenn. Yawn, 49, who works for Cologuard, lives west of Nashville.
“We made a commitment, and we cannot stop now,” Clary said. “Every year, Jamey and I start making plans in August or September. We never ask each other IF we are going. We just figure out how to make it happen. Since 1996 he has moved three times. We both have gotten married and had kids. MLS Cup is a part of who we are, and we just make sure it happens.”
Yawn and Clary are among a handful of fans and individuals who have pulled off a rarity, watching every MLS championship game in person. Clary said they met Jeff Reeder of Washington, D.C., who also has attended every final.
“We think there are only six people, including us three, but we don’t know them all,” Clary said.
Clary and Yawn flew into this Northwest city on Friday, cognizant of the Providence Park rules due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All fans must have proof of vaccination or show that they had a negative COVID test within 48 hours. Everyone at the venue must wear a mask.
“We have checked the Providence Park restrictions and have complied with everything,” Clark said. “Separately, Jamey and I had a moment recently when we realized, ‘What happens if I get COVID right before MLS Cup?’ We realized that would kill the streak. As of right now, both of us are good to go.”
As they were in 1996, as that cup was the most memorable for Clary and friends, given the weather and D.C.’s incredible comeback.
“The four of us were just so excited about MLS making it through the year,” Clary said. “For all of us, it was our first MLS game to attend.”
A little more than a quarter of a century later, Clary and his colleagues are just about dried out from their adventure water-logged Foxboro Stadium.
“It was miserable,” Clary said. “I remember the first trickle of rain that streamed down my back after my hat and hair could absorb no more water. Then came more trickles down my back and legs. It rained so much that weekend that they cancelled an annual boat race.
“You cheered at the game by jumping up and down on the bleachers. That made noise without us having to take our hands from our pockets. Eddie Pope ended our misery. But Jamey and I agree, it was the best MLS Cup of them all.”
Pope, then a rookie, not a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame, tallied the game-winning goal, a Golden Goal, in a sudden-death victory.
There were other memorable finals, some for the right reasons, some others where the fans survived the elements.
“I think there was a 0-0 game in Boston one year,” Clary said. “All of them provide some memory: the heat of LA in 1998, Beckham’s final game, [Landon] Donovan’s final game, cold in Columbus a couple times. KC was the coldest but with good seats. Dallas was fun because we made a trip to Big Bend National Park, Seattle and Atlanta because of the huge crowds, Toronto was cold but had good games.”
They have kept coming back year in and year out.
“We made a commitment, and we cannot stop now,” Clary said. “Every year, Jamey and I start making plans in August or September. We never ask each other IF we are going. We just figure out how to make it happen. Since 1996 he has moved three times. We both have gotten married and had kids. MLS Cup is a part of who we are, and we just make sure it happens.”
For years, Yawn and Clary did not have a rooting interest in cup. Since Nashville SC joined the league in 2000, they certainly wouldn’t mind seeing their club reach the final.
“Often other friends have joined us for MLS Cup,” said Clary, whose favorite players are Nashville’s Hany Mukhtar and Dax McCarty. “In addition to the first two friends who joined us, another eight or 10 guys have accompanied us at least once. We used to always ask before MLS Cup, “Which team do you want to win?’ But now that Nashville has an MLS team, we really don’t care who wins MLS Cup if NSC is not in the game. If they are not in MLS Cup, we just want to see an exciting game and support the league.”
In this year’s confrontation, NYCFC will go against a team coached by someone who called New York Citty home for some three decades, Portland head coach Giovanni Savarese.
“It’s cool that we will see a big market team vs. a small market team,” Clary said.
But …
“We wish [commissioner] Don Garber would commit to playing all MLS Cups in Nashville forever.”
