No sooner had the draw for the 1994 World Cup been completed than the accusations began to fly that FIFA had greased the skids for the host nation by ensuring the Americans' placement in a "soft" group with Switzerland, Colombia, and Romania.

The theory at the time was that soccer's overlords, bedazzled by the prospect of future US television dollars flowing into their coffers, were more than willing to bend a bit in order to kickstart the sport's impression on the Americans, and that what was good for American soccer would ultimately benefit the sport worldwide.

The US did make it out of its group to reach the last 16 that year, although it took a late owngoal from Colombia to do it.

No one is suggesting that FIFA has done the US any favours for France 98. The Yanks open against Germany in Paris Monday evening, and the road doesn't get much easier after that: they face another old political enemy, Iran, on June 21st in Lyon, and still another, Yugoslavia, in Nantes on the 25th; it will rate as a colossal upset if the Americans are not headed home immediately thereafter.

The climate of soccer in the United States is in many respects vastly removed from what it was four years ago, but then that was the plan all along. If World Cup 94 was meant to bludgeon the American sporting public over the head, the advent of a sustained professional league was supposed to gently massage it into their collective consciousness over the intervening four years.

The high-water mark of American soccer - the US's stunning 1-0 upset of Brazil, ending a 23match unbeaten streak, in this year's Gold Cup semi-final - may have been regarded by Americans as even more of an aberration than it was viewed in the rest of the world, but the inroads made by Major League Soccer appear to be here to stay.

"I'd have to say that if you looked back to where we were four years ago we're very, very happy," says Brian O'Donovan, the Clonakilty-born general manager of Major League Soccer's New England Revolution, who was an instrumental player in the US's World Cup bid for 1994.

"In the broadest sense, we have a viable, competitive professional league operating in this country. We've not only exceeded our attendance expectations, but you've seen coaches and general managers fired, players traded and released. We're a fully-functioning league."

Although in the vast spectrum of American professional sport MLS continues to be regarded a poor stepchild, ranking well beneath Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League in its bid for the sporting public's dollar, it has made surprising inroads.

Attendance in its first year averaged 17,416, and dropped to 14,616 last season once the novelty aspect had worn off. This year attendance has levelled off at 14,894, or had, before many of the league's star players were plucked away for World Cup duty.

At least two conceptual questions continue to dog MLS. The first concerns the timing: clearly, since the creation of the league was intended to capitalise on the impact of the 1994 World Cup, it would have been better served to have been up and running the following year. That it didn't play its inaugural season until 1996 represents a year lost forever.

The other concerns the decision to continue the league's spring-to-autumn schedule even while this year's World Cup is being played out in France. Many rosters have been decimated due to national team commitments by players who are, by American standards anyway, stars.

From the outset MLS has attempted to appeal not only to America's large population of immigrants from soccer-playing nations, but to the families of the millions of youngsters now playing the sport from an early age.

To be sure, a sport isn't going to rise and fall on its appeal to a demographic group politicians from both major parties now acknowledge as a formidable force - the so-called "soccer moms" - but it certainly doesn't hurt that in its three seasons of existence, MLS has remained relatively scandal-free and continues to be regarded as wholesome family entertainment.

Despite substandard teams, New England's attendance has surpassed the league-wide totals, averaging 19,035. 21,423, and 17,964 over three years. And even with its star players abroad, the Revolution expected a crowd of 35,000 for last night's friendly against the Portuguese side Benefica.

US coach Steve Sampson has seemed somewhat insecure in his preparations for Monday evening's game in Paris and perhaps it is understandable. Named the "interim" coach after Bora Milutinovic's dismissal, Sampson wasn't officially confirmed until well after his team had qualified for France last fall.

Having finally been handed the reins, he has attempted to make his own imprint, junking the former structure for a radical 3-6-1 formation with which he has tinkered through the spring. MetroStars defender Alexi Lalas, the poster boy for American soccer throughout the 1990s, was shown to a spot on the bench, and in what was seen as a battle over control, Sampson coldly dismissed DC United's John Harkes, the veteran team captain, from the squad for France 98 six weeks ago.

Only three days away from the opener, he still hasn't made his choice between Roy Wegerle (Tampa Bay Mutiny), Eric Wynalda (San Jose Clash), or Brian McBride (Columbus Crew) as his replacement up front.

In some respects Sampson faces a situation similar to that of Jack Charlton a few years back, in that he is sailing off to battle with a team increasingly long in the tooth. Some of the younger blood forthcoming - defender Eddie Pope (DC United) and the aforementioned McBride, to name two - are players the Americans almost certainly never would have stumbled across in the absence of MLS.

The goalkeeping should be in stronger hands this year, with Premier League veterans Kasey Kelley (Leicester) and Brad Friedel (Liverpool) having replaced the New York MetroStars' Tony Meola, but for the most part the team reflects the same all-too-familiar cast of characters - only four years older.

If soccer has made major inroads in the US, it is probably reflected in the television schedule for France 98. The 150 to 1 underdog Americans will have all three of their first-round games televised on ABC, and cable outlets ESPN and ESPN2 are committed to televising virtually every other game of the tournament.

For the first time in their history, Americans will at least have the opportunity to see World Cup action from start to finish. If they don't watch, it will be by choice.