Hamm’s Game Does Talking : Women’s soccer: U.S. team’s reticent striker expected to make noise in tonight’s rematch against tough Norway.

VASTERAS, Sweden — The United States and China had played to a 3-3 tie in the opening soccer game of the second FIFA Women’s World Championship and Xie Hong, a young reporter for the Yangcheng Evening News, waited until everyone else was finished before asking her question.

“What did you think of the player No. 9?” she asked U.S. Coach Tony DiCicco.

“You mean Wan Sun?” DiCicco said.

“No, no, your No. 9.”

“Mia Hamm? When she’s on, there’s no one better. I think you saw glimpses of her play today.”

Glimpses.

That’s all the tournament has seen of the unrivaled talents of Mariel Margaret Hamm. Her play, like her personality, has largely remained hidden.

Still, coming to grips with Mia Hamm the player is much easier than trying to penetrate the masks she wears to shield herself from the public eye.

There are faces behind the faces of the woman voted the finest U.S. female college athlete in 1994.

There’s the one she wears when talking to the media, for example. That one is serious, with the suggestion of a frown. There is a wariness about the eyes and an almost nervous edge to the voice. Sometimes, that face smiles, but not often.

Then there’s the one she wears with her teammates. That one is more relaxed. The frown is gone. The smile is more frequent. She might be clowning with a video camera or she might be--pardon the phrase--hamming it up for the cameras of the other U.S. players, forgetting, albeit briefly, the pressure she is under.

Finally, there’s the one that opponents see. That one is almost fearsome. The frown is now a full-fledged scowl. The concentration is intense, the commitment total. It’s her game face. It says, “I’m a world champion and this is why.”

And then, with skills that are the envy of nearly every women’s player in the world, she proceeds to show them.

Hamm, 23, is at the top of her game. Tonight, she will have to be, because she and her American teammates play Norway in the semifinals. It is the toughest game, by far, that the United States has faced in this tournament, pitting the winner and runner-up, respectively, from the 1991 championship in China.

And unless the U.S. team’s other two first-string strikers--injury-plagued Michelle Akers and Carin Gabarra--can somehow raise their games back to the level of China ‘91, it will be up to Hamm to earn the American team its place in Sunday’s final at Stockholm.

With Akers having played only seven minutes because of head and knee injuries and Gabarra reduced to a shadow of her MVP form of 1991 because a back injury, Hamm has carried the team by setting up goals.

Through the first four games, she has one goal and four assists. Her value to the team cannot be measured in simple statistics, however. It is the way she plays, the way she attacks the ball, the speed, the skill, the fierce competitiveness of her game, that sets her apart from the average player.

“She’s setting up so many people,” said forward Tiffeny Milbrett, who has scored three goals while playing in Akers’ place, “but of course you don’t get the recognition for that.

“Just being out there with her is such a treat. She does everything so well and is so dangerous that it’s contagious. You love being out there because everything she does is positive.”

Still, after scoring 47 goals in her first 88 national team appearances before this tournament, Hamm is frustrated at having scored only once in four games in Sweden.

“She’s a little down because she’s not finishing the [goal-scoring] opportunities like she normally does,” said midfielder Kristine Lilly, “but it’s going to come for her. It’s just a matter of time.”

At 19, Hamm was the youngest player on the 1991 team, but even then she was a veteran. She made her national-team debut against China in 1987 at age 15, the youngest player to represent the United States.

But, eight years later, she remains an enigma. What was once regarded as shyness is now seen as a dislike of publicity. And yet her on-field success keeps thrusting her into the limelight. Consider these achievements:

--High school All-American.

--Olympic Festival silver-medal winner in 1987 and gold-medal winner in 1989 and 1990.

--World champion in 1991.

--Four-time NCAA champion at North Carolina between 1989-1993. --Two-time Missouri Athletic Club and Hermann Trophy winner as college soccer’s best player in 1992 and 1993.

--Three-time All-American and Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year between 1990-1993.

--All-time ACC leader in goals (103) and assists (72).

--U.S. Soccer’s female athlete of the year in 1994.

--Jersey No. 19 retired by UNC in 1994.

--Honda-Broderick Cup winner as the top female college athlete in the United States in 1994, the first soccer player to be so honored.

Hamm is hesitant to discuss herself, but others are very willing.

“Mia is still very introverted and pensive,” assistant coach April Heinrichs said, “but she’s also very caring and compassionate to her teammates.

“If you asked Mia why she’s been involved in athletics all her life, it has nothing to do with hedonistic behavior patterns. It’s far more along the lines of contributing, being a part of, being accepted by, all these other qualities that we wrap up into, I guess, camaraderie.”

In other words, the national team has become home to Mia Hamm and, win or lose tonight, is likely to remain so for some time to come.