READY TO POUNCE

“If you want to catch a tiger,” Kim Hak Yong was saying, “you have to go into the tiger’s cave.”

Today, Kim and his North Korea team enter that cave. They face the United States in a game at Foxboro Stadium that they have to win to reach the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup.

And the tiger is waiting.

Both teams are coming off impressive victories. The U.S. mauled Nigeria, 7-1, in Chicago on Thursday, the same day North Korea upset Denmark, 3-1, in Portland, Ore.

“In my country, women’s football is young,” said Kim, who played soccer professionally for 14 years and is passing on those lessons as coach of the North Korean women’s team. “We don’t have the experience or the success that the USA has had.”

But while North Korea knows plenty about the U.S., thanks to the television coverage of U.S. games over the last few years, the Americans know precious little about the North Koreans.

“I don’t like to go into games not knowing opponents,” U.S. Coach Tony DiCicco said. “I like to have played opponents.”

One way to have found out would have been to talk to Julie Murray, captain of Australia’s World Cup team.

Murray and the Matildas, as the Aussies are nicknamed, last year made a three-game trip to one of the world’s most forbidding countries, traveling to North Korea despite warnings from Australia’s government not to do so.

It was an eye-opener, Murray said.

“North Korea is probably one of the best experiences I have had, culturally,” she said. “The [Australian] government decided to not endorse it [the trip] about four or five days before we left. They didn’t sanction it, they weren’t going to come to our defense.”

Not that such action was needed.

The Australians were housed, Murray said, “in the only five-star hotel in all of North Korea,” while the North Korean team stayed in more spartan quarters at a sports complex.

Away from the games themselves, Murray recalled two incidents that showed quite plainly that Pyongyang is not Sydney.

“We were fortunate enough to be in Pyongyang when their Revolutionary Day was going to be in about a week’s time,” she said, “so they were practicing for it.

“It was sensational. They had night parades and they’d be marching down the streets at 3 in the morning. There were a lot of men in military uniforms, but no guns.

“It was obviously a poverty-stricken country, but in saying that, the morale was good and they weren’t a sad-looking people. I did pick up a few books on the Youth Socialist Workers Party, which all of the people must join.”

As team captain, Murray was the only Australian player given a badge depicting the late Comrade Kim Il Sung, the so-called “Great Leader.”

“Everything about the country is based around Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il, and what they called the ‘Juche’ idea, sort of a combination of Marxism, Stalin and all that kind of stuff,” Murray said. “So that was interesting.”

Particularly if it could be looked at and dismissed, knowing that there was a plane waiting to return the team back to the known world, contact with which was virtually nonexistent except for the odd telephone call.

“We had no outside information coming in,” Murray said. “There was one time I was speaking to some friends back in Australia and they said, ‘What’s happening? What’s happening? North Korea just set off a rocket and it landed just outside Japanese waters.’

“That was the first we’d heard of it. And we were concerned because retaliation is a big thing and the first place they would have gone to was the capital. So what do you do? You can’t run away. They probably only have one flight a week.”

Fortunately, the incident amounted to nothing and the Australians were able to concentrate on the three games.

“We went over there confident, but having no idea what they were like,” Murray said. “The first two games ended 0-0 and the last match we won, 1-0. Their defense is very strong, but they had incredibly biased referees. I’ve seen some biased referees in my time, but it was just so blatant. We’d be called offside when it wasn’t, and there were all sorts of fouls.

“I came away with bruises all over my back and down the backs of my legs and shins. But even though they were very, very physical and they got away with a lot, they are still a compact and incredibly competitive side. I think they train every day twice a day. I was impressed with their professionalism.”

The lesson for the U.S. players, obviously, is to expect to be fouled and to have the patience not to retaliate, which could lead to a red card and suspension from the next game or two.

The Koreans also showed some skill, Murray said.

“Technically, they have very, very good players,” she said. “They’re very well drilled. Very fast. They have one playmaker, a shorter girl, who is sort of like the brains of the team. She [midfielder Kim Sum Sil] can knock the ball anywhere and she’ll come back into the defense to get the ball.”

Interaction between the teams was very limited because of the language barrier.

“When we did meet at the stadium, they’d sort of nod their head and give a bit of a smile,” Murray said.

“The beauty about countries like the U.S. and North Korea and China [which North Korea finished second behind in the most recent Asian Games and Asian Cup competitions] is that everybody’s proud, nationally,” Murray said. “There’s this overwhelming sense of pride and doing everything well for the country.”

She paused, realizing that there are indeed differences between waving flags by choice and waving flags under order.

“In North Korea, it’s almost like a requirement to perform well,” she said. “. . . You might get a few [North Korean players] who might want to stay here.”

The three matches in Pyongyang were videotaped and the Australians have them. Will they allow to DiCicco to view them?

“We might sell them to Tony for a small price,” Murray said with a grin.

Capitalism. You can’t beat it. On or off the field.

Today: U.S. vs. North Korea, at Foxboro, Mass., 4 p.m., ESPN2