Coach Bruce Arena called in 30 players for his latest national team training camp in Carson, California. It was hardly a representative selection since, with one exception, all of them play their soccer for MLS clubs. Most of Arena’s top players were not in Carson – they are busy playing for their European clubs.

That fact – that American soccer players are now in demand in Europe – illuminates the extraordinary, and extraordinarily rapid, progress that the sport has made in America.

For 40 years, between 1950 and 1990, America was a pathetic outsider on the international soccer scene. During that period, nine World Cups were played, and the U.S. failed to qualify for any of them.

Everything changed in 1990,when the Americans qualified for the finals in Italy.Unsurprisingly,the team did not do well. Playing cautiously and defensively, it lost all three of its games. But the poor results were soon to be forgotten as the great American soccer miracle evolved with remarkable speed.

Four years later, the World Cup was actually staged in the USA. A farce, the detractors insisted, no one will come. But the games were played in packed stadiums – measured by attendance, the 1994 tournament was, and remains, the most successful World Cup ever. And the home team advanced to the second round before losing 1-0 to the eventual winners, Brazil.

Things didn’t go so well in 1998 in France, when the Yanks posted another 0-3 record and finished dead last among the 32 finalists. An aberration, evidently. In 2002 the Americans, under Arena, reached the quarter finals only to be narrowly – and for many, undeservedly – beaten by Germany on a controversial goal.

For this year’s tournament in Germany,America was a strong candidate to be one of the eight seeded teams in the preliminary draw. It missed out (to Mexico), but now no one doubts the U.S. is a major player in the global game.

This transition, from laughable to laudable in the eyes of the soccer world, has taken a mere 16 years. Sure, it was gestating for a bit longer than that – maybe it goes back another 15 years, to 1975, when the influence of the old North American Soccer League began to make itself felt. But even that 21-year span is remarkably short for what has been achieved.

Where Arena can now call on more than a dozen players with extensive pro experience in tough European leagues, the team that coach Bob Gansler took to Italy in 1990 included only one such starter – Peter Vermes of the Dutch team FC Volendam. Two of Gansler’s players were still in college, and five of them – including goalkeeper Tony Meola and midfielder Tab Ramos – were listed on the official FIFA roster as having no club affiliation at all. In 1990, that was a fair reflection of the dire 303 1540 413 1552state of soccer in America, a country without a pro league.

Arena now has a domestic pro league, MLS, to rely on. In the 2002 World Cup, his starting team for the opening game against Portugal included six MLS players. But, so striking have been the changes in American soccer, that an MLS dominated team will not appear in Germany. The Europe-based players now hold sway.

Of the U.S.-based players in Arena’s camp, only Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy) looks like a guaranteed starter,with Eddie Pope (Real Salt Lake) on the likely list. Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids) has always performed well when called upon, whether in defense or in midfield, but he faces competition in midfield from John O’Brien of Ajax (Netherlands), a more experienced, if injury-dogged, player.

The American midfield has another injury-prone player: captain Claudio Reyna (Manchester City, England) who is currently out of action until mid-February with an ankle injury.

Up front, Arena has Brian McBride (Fulham, England) who is currently enjoying a spell of goal-scoring form that has brought forth ecstatic words from Chris Coleman, his coach at Fulham: “He’s a coach’s dream. He trains like a professional, and on the field he gives everything.”

Words that surely leave Arena with only one question about his team’s attack: who to play alongside McBride? There are four candidates, all of them with MLS clubs: Taylor Twellman (New England Revs), Josh Wolff (Kansas City Wizards), Brian Ching (Houston), and Eddie Johnson (FC Dallas).

Twellman, a prolific scorer in MLS play, has not been nearly so successful in his international appearances, while Ching may simply be too similar in physique and style to McBride. Wolff has the most experience, but Johnson, at 21 the youngest of the quartet, is the likeliest to partner with McBride – his phenomenal scoring rate with the national team (eight goals in nine appearances) should ensure that.

But Johnson is another of Arena’s injury concerns, having spent most of the 2005 MLS nursing a stress fracture in his right foot. His presence in the training camp evidently pleased Arena: “He’s a little rusty, but you can see he’s got his body in decent shape. His touch is off a little bit … but it’s a real positive he’s back with the team.”

Johnson, along with Pope and Donovan, would makeup an MLS trio on Arena’s likely starting team, with the other eight places going to Europe-based players: Goalkeeper Kasey Keller (Borussia Moenchengladbach, Germany); defenders Pope, Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham, England), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96, Germany), Eddie Lewis (Leeds United, England); midfielders Donovan, Reyna, O’Brien, DaMarcus Beasley (PSV Eindhoven, Netherlands); and forwards Johnson and McBride.

What of teenage star Freddy Adu? He was never a realistic candidate for a starting spot, but when Arena called him into camp, a place on the final roster of 23 players seemed a possibility. But Arena’s rather offhand comments since then make this also rather unlikely: “Our expectations for Freddy are not great. It’s just good to get him in here and give him a feel of what this is about with the national team.”

In just 16 years,America has leapt forward from a team of semi-professionals to one on which Arena has a surplus of top pros to select from – a surplus that will justify leaving the country’s most promising youngster at home.

pgardner@nysun.com