Now that the US men’s national team’s hopes for winning the 2011 Gold Cup are dashed, our attention changes to focus on the US women’s national team who will play their first match of the tournament on Tuesday against Korea DPR (11:45am ET, ESPN).

Meanwhile today is the first day of competition in the 2011 Women’s World Cup. And ESPN will be covering every match live from Germany with familiar commentators and presenters including Ian Darke, Rebecca Lowe, Adrian Healey and many others.

You can read more about ESPN’s coverage of the tournament at sister site World Cup Buzz, where writer Haley Thaxton will be covering the tournament (where both the United States and England are competing, among others). Read her debut article about what to expect from ESPN’s coverage of the competition. And, if you’re a non-believer, give the Women’s World Cup (which I thoroughly enjoy, and support) a chance. For viewers in the United States, today’s first games are 8:45am ET (Nigeria against France; ESPN2) and 11:30am ET (Germany versus Canada; ESPN).

Editor’s note: Here’s the TV schedule for the 2011 Women’s World Cup.