U.S. SOCCER PRIMED FOR CUP QUALIFYING : WYNALDA AND CO. BEGIN TREK.

Byline: Joseph White Associated Press 

A remarkable thing has happened in the seven years since the United States last played a game in a World Cup qualifying tournament.

``When we were going into 1990, we did not have one single legitimate pro,'' forward Eric Wynalda said. ``We were a bunch of college kids. . . . the complete underdog.''

And now?

``The fans pick up the paper and see who we're playing against,'' Wynalda said. ``And if it's not Germany or England or Italy or Argentina or Brazil, we're expected to win. That's good. That's one of the good things about Americans, is that we have an attitude with our sports.''

Which means nothing short of victory will be good enough today when the United States hosts Guatemala at RFK Stadium, the first game in the long road to qualify for the 1998 World Cup in France.

And a victory is almost what the Americans will need, here and the following week at Richmond, Va., when they play host to Trinidad and Tobago.

Two games on the road come next, and winning on foreign soil can be extremely tough against small nations who see soccer as their one sporting chance to beat the United States.

``It's very important to get off to a good start, especially with home games,'' Wynalda said after practice Friday at George Mason University. ``Getting results in away games is going to be the biggest challenge. They're very small countries, but they're very good teams. They're very good players.''

Wynalda was there for the last U.S. qualifier, an 1-0 upset at Port of Spain, Trinidad, in November 1989 that sent the Americans to the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

A lot has happened since. The United States was host - and thus didn't have to qualify for - the 1994 World Cup and made it to the second round. Several Americans went overseas and made impacts with top European clubs. Players such as Alexi Lalas, Cobi Jones and John Harkes have become recognizable stars. Major League Soccer had its debut this year, giving coach Steve Sampson a new fertile ground for finding American talent.

``Never have we been this well prepared going into a game,'' said Wynalda, the career scoring leader in U.S. national team history. ``Just about everybody has been there now, experienced the pressure, experienced the World Cup. It would be very, very, very disappointing to see this team not qualify.''

Among the talent Sampson spotted this year in the MLS was Preki of the Kansas City Wiz. Yugoslavia-born, Preki became a U.S. citizen on Oct. 25 and now wishes to be known by his full name, Predrag Radosavljevic. Sampson said his newest player has a good chance of playing either as a midfielder or forward today.

Kasey Keller won the goalkeeper's job ahead of Brad Friedel.