Two soccer fans have attended every MLS Cup, and they’re not stopping now

Jeff Reeder, a D.C. United fan from Laurel, Md., said he has attended every final but, as of Thursday, had not been able to secure a ticket for Saturday’s game. The only reporter to attend every one, Long Island-based Michael Lewis, wrote that he will end his run this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Deputy commissioner Mark Abbott plans to keep his membership in that exclusive club by serving in an official capacity at Mapfre Stadium for the match between the Crew and Seattle Sounders. However, MLS executive vice president Todd Durbin is questionable after 24 appearances.

Under local pandemic guidelines, only about 1,500 fans are allowed into a venue that holds just shy of 20,000 — a limit that threatened the streak. But Clary said the Crew arranged for him to purchase two digital tickets to the 25th championship game and he will receive them Thursday or Friday.

The pair is planning to drive 375 miles Saturday for the culmination of a soccer season that began in February and, like all sports, went on hiatus for health and safety reasons.

“There were years we didn’t think it would work, but it’s always come together,” said Yawn, 47, a Nashville area manager for a medical diagnostic company. “If we can make it work this year, we can make it work every year.”

Clary, Yawn and two buddies scrambled to attend, even though they were not fans of either team.

“We’re soccer fans,” Clary said. “There was almost nothing in [U.S.] pro soccer between 1985 and ‘96. We needed to support Major League Soccer by going to the championship game.”

The group did it again the following year in Washington, but as time passed, only Clary and Yawn kept attending. Over the years, others have joined them, but only they can claim the streak.

“We can’t stop now,” said Clary, 52. “When we made this pledge, we had no idea what it meant. We never have the conversation: ‘Are we not going to go next year?’ We start talking about it in July or August. It’s assumed we’re going.”

The streak has continued, even though both married and had children. Yawn also moved around the country for work, including a few years in the D.C. area.

In 2007, while on a two-month work assignment in England, Clary flew to Washington to join his friend for the final between the Houston Dynamo and New England Revolution.

For the first 16 years, tickets were not hard to come by because the venue was preselected and rarely did the team in the host city advance to the final. With the destination chosen up to a year in advance, the duo could plan the trip at low costs.

In 2012, however, MLS began awarding the game to the finalist with the most regular season points. Demand for tickets soared and the supply dropped as more teams moved from large, multipurpose venues into small stadiums designed for soccer.

Clary and Yawn have secured tickets through networks of friends with season tickets, temporary memberships in supporters’ groups and direct outreach to teams. They have never gone through ticket brokers or reselling sites, Clary said, and except for once or twice, they haven’t received free tickets.

Not knowing the location until one to two weeks before the game has also caused headaches. Last year, they scrambled to arrange travel to Seattle after Atlanta, positioned to host the title game, lost in the Eastern Conference final. A 250-mile drive became all-day travel.

“You had to ask yourself: Is it really worth it?” Clary said.

Tickets in soccer-mad Seattle were hard to find, even for a game in a 69,000-seat stadium. Clary and Yawn had a connection, though: Toronto backup goalkeeper Caleb Patterson-Sewell, a Hendersonville native. His parents didn’t plan to attend, so the tickets ended up with them.

Before families entered the picture, several annual soccer journeys included side trips: Alaska following an MLS Cup in the Los Angeles area, Big Bend National Park after a game in Texas and London following a final in Foxborough.

They’ve attended World Cups in the United States (1994), South Korea (2002) and Germany (2006).

Yawn is a native of Tupelo, Miss., where “soccer wasn’t the most popular sport,” he said with a laugh. His family moved to Hendersonville when he was 13. Clary coached him at the club level.

Both are season ticket holders for Nashville SC, which entered MLS this year.

“Soccer was the window into my friend network,” Yawn said. “Some of best friends then and now are through soccer. It’s the great connector.”

Clary organized ticket stubs from the first 22 finals in two frames as if they were players in formation. “I’m saving the rest for reserve players,” he said. Yawn said he has misplaced two.

Both said their most memorable final was the first one. In New England’s cold, rain and wind, United recovered from a two-goal deficit in the second half before winning on Eddie Pope’s sudden-death header off a corner kick.

Clary and Yawn were behind that net.

“The entire game, you just jumped up and down to try to stay warm. You never took your hands out of your pockets,” Clary said. “It was miserable, but the level of misery made it more memorable.”

Next on Clary’s list of top finals: David Beckham’s 2012 farewell with the Galaxy and Seattle last year, because of the atmosphere in the city and inside the sold-out stadium. From a spectating standpoint, the worst experiences were bitter cold in Toronto and Kansas City.

The pair will prepare for rain and mild temperatures on Saturday — not that conditions would ever dissuade them.

“When we first started doing it, we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to do this every year?’ ” Yawn said. “Eight or 10 years into it, we thought, ‘Let’s see how long we can keep this going.’ ”