After attending the first MLS championship game, four of us pledged to support MLS forever. We blissfully declared, “Every year.”

We had grown up in the gray days of American soccer. We followed the NASL until it folded, watched the Major Indoor Soccer League on USA Network, and kept up with college soccer as it became America’s top level. And we lived the World Cup summer of 1994 in an alternative universe of road trips and three-game marathons of staring at TVs in sports bars.

The league that was promised to follow the 1994 World Cup was delayed from 1995 to 1996, generating legitimate suspicion of demise before kickoff. But we rejoiced at Eric Wynalda’s goal on April 6, 1996.

Without a local team, Jamie Bertotti, Jamey Yawn, Lee Edwards and I showed appreciation to MLS by attending the first MLS Cup.

During rain heavy enough to cancel an annual regatta in Boston, the four of us shivered through overtime of splashy soccer to see the end of the beginning of a dream.

Too cold to applaud, we dug our curled hands into our soaked pockets and jumped up and down on the Foxboro Stadium bleachers to make noise. We went wild when Eddie Pope claimed the trophy in thrilling fashion. As we slalomed around the puddles toward our car, we vowed to the league and each other to return to MLS Cup every year.

In 1997 in Washington we watched D.C. United win again, again in the rain. In L.A. we saw Chicago’s first season end with the cup. By then, Lee and Jamie had left our squad.

Jamey Yawn and I returned to Boston in 1999 with other friends. In 2000, we witnessed the dullest final ever, a 1-0 Kansas City win. Columbus Crew’s stadium, the first specifically built for soccer, hosted us in 2001. We made our third trip to Boston, for MLS Cup 2002.

Commitment

Our commitment — every year — was a growing but proud obligation. Jamey and I were single, constantly looking for excuses to travel, and skeptical that MLS had long to live. He and I flew to Asia for the 2002 World Cup and often organized soccer trips with an evolving roster of friends. Some of them joined our annual trips to MLS Cup.

Home Depot Center hosted us in 2003 and 2004. The league then chose Frisco, Texas, in 2005 and 2006. By then Jamey had moved to Maryland, and we both had adult responsibilities. We appreciated the opportunity to reconnect each year, but we started wondering when it — the league — would end. Still committed to every year, we didn’t know how many years it would be until death do us part. We were at 11.