FIFA’s decision to grant the U.S. the rights to stage the 1994 World Cup did not go down well in traditional soccer circles.

Why should a country with little soccer tradition – it didn’t even have a pro league, for Pete’s sake! – be awarded the sport’s biggest event? Why should the U.S., which had only qualified for one World Cup in the past 44 years, be the beneficiary of the automatic qualification that hosting the tournament entailed?

No one really doubted that money was behind the move. FIFA hoped that the World Cup would kick-start the sport in the U.S., and bring that vast, rich American market into the soccer fold.

And who’s to say the plan didn’t work? The 1994 tournament was a huge success and set records for overall attendance. A dozen years later, six of the 14 major sponsors for the 2006 World Cup in Germany are American companies. The U.S. now has a pro league, MLS, while the United States Soccer Federation has a surplus of $30 million – enough to provoke another sign of growing maturity: a dispute with its players, who feel they should get a bigger slice of that money. The players’ militancy mirrors the newfound strength of the U.S. on the field. The national team performed exceptionally well in the 2002 World Cup, and is now ranked 11th in the world (out of 205 soccer nations).

Even so, it is arguable that FIFA’s biggest helping hand for American soccer came with its decision, made shortly before the 1994 tournament got under way, to expand future World Cup finals to 32 teams from 24. The increase meant that the North and Central American area – known in soccer circles by the acronym Concacaf – would now have three berths.

Of the 35 Concacaf teams, 32 can be classified as minnows – Dominica, St Lucia, Montserrat, Aruba, et al. The region has only two major powers, the U.S. and Mexico (world ranking no. 7), and one minor power, Costa Rica (27th). Should any of those three end up in fourth place in the qualifiers-which seems unlikely – they still have a chance, as they go into a two-game playoff with a team from Asia.

It used to be that the U.S. found Mexico almost impossible to beat. Between 1934 and 2000, the U.S. managed only 5 wins, against 27 losses and 9 ties. But since then, the Americans’ record is 5-1-1, including a decisive 2-0 win in the second round of the 2002 World Cup. In short, the two rivals are now on pretty equal footing, and it would take a series of seismic upsets in the current hexagonal tournament for them not to qualify for Germany 2006.

In the hexagonal, the U.S. faces home-and-home games against Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama. The underwhelming difficulty of finishing in the first three is revealed by further study of the world rankings: After Costa Rica, the next hexagonal team to be found is T&T (61st), followed by Guatemala (68th) and Panama (101st).

In its first game last week, the U.S. traveled to Port of Spain to take on T&T and recorded a comfortable 2-1 win. Mexico, in a more difficult game, won by the same score line in Costa Rica.

The U.S. was hardly sparkling, but a workmanlike performance was all that was needed for victory in the sweltering heat of Port of Spain. The rest of the work was done by T&T’s own deficiencies: an incoherent attack and a defense given to naive lapses, as when three defenders simply stood and watched as the U.S.’s Eddie Johnson ran forward and leapt superbly to head home the first goal.

The 20-year-old Johnson’s ability to find the net for the U.S. – this was his fourth goal in just six games – is a highly promising note for the Americans, particularly as veteran forward Brian McBride, playing alongside him, had a painfully poor game.

Pablo Mastroeni, the Argentine-born midfielder, was the U.S.’s top performer, ubiquitous and reliable defensively, with a quick eye for a sudden attacking move – witness his dipping 30-yard volley in the first half that forced a spectacular save from T&T goalkeeper Shaka Hislop. Defenders Eddie Pope, Cory Gibbs, and Carlos Bocanegra were adequate, nothing more. Landon Donovan was his usual lively and dangerous self in midfield, and set up Eddie Lewis beautifully to score the U.S.’s second goal.

After the game, the Americans made a big deal of the fact that, because of the players’ dispute with the USSF, the team had only two weeks of preparation.

“I think the way our team pulled together over the last couple of weeks to be ready to play this game under difficult conditions was great,” said coach Bruce Arena. “Winning qualifying games on the road is a very difficult challenge, and to pull it off in the opening game with the issues we were dealing with is fantastic.”

Even goalkeeper Kasey Keller abandoned his normally levelheaded view of things.

“It’s massive,” he said. “Especially after all the drama that has gone on.The guys got together and got a great victory.”

The tang of overkill flavors those statements. T&T could hardly be represented as a fearsome opponent. The U.S.’s lifetime record against T&T is now 11 wins, one loss, and three ties; in World Cup qualifiers, it is 7-0-2.

As for the short preparation time and the vaunted “coming together,” there have simply been too many examples of teams doing well at short notice for that to be taken too seriously. The classic example was Denmark in 1992. Having failed to qualify for that year’s European championship, the team disbanded; the players went on vacation and coach Richard Nielsen started to decorate his kitchen. Then the team was hastily reassembled less than three weeks before Euro 92, called in to replace disqualified Yugoslavia. The winners of the tournament? Denmark.

The U.S. will be fully prepared for its next qualifier on March 27, when 90,000 passionate fans will await them in Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca. The passion will be all about the intense rivalry that now exists between the U.S. and Mexico, with the Mexicans viewing a loss to the gringos as the most humiliating defeat of all.

Lost in all the frenzy will be the ostensible point of the game: World Cup qualification. Both countries know that their places on Germany 2006 are all but guaranteed. FIFA saw to that back in 1994.