Color me jealous; serious Euro 2012 qualifying underway

I am feeling very jealous of Europe today.

No, it’s not because of the superior dairy products. Nor the café society, extensive high-speed rail or the kick-ass beers of Belgium and the Bavarian vicinity – although those are certainly good causes of raging jealousy.

It’s because another round of critical qualifying matches is underway. Already! Teams just got off the plane, back from South Africa, just the other day!

So it’s a chance for supporters to monitor real matches, passing, trapping and shooting with actual meaning. The nations of Europe are attempting to qualify for the Euro 2002 tournament in Poland and Ukraine.

That means this is serious business – because getting to the 16-team tournament really means something. Over here, we look at Portugal’s 4-4 tie with little Cyprus, shake our heads a little at such a goofy result, and then go back to worrying about toxic eggs and what’s for lunch.

But not in Lisbon and Porto and other Portuguese cities, where they must be falling over backward in disgust at this result. And fear, too! The fear factor is that Denmark and Norway are in Portugal’s group, which means there’s real competition for the top spot or a favorable runner-up spot.

Because no one wants to be left behind when the party starts in Warsaw and Kiev two summers hence.

Meanwhile, back here we have …uh … well, when does that CONCACAF Gold Cup start?

(Read on for more …)

See my point here? They have real matches. These qualifiers are serious stuff. They are already talking about “must-win games” in France after that shocking result against Belarus.

Meanwhile, over here, we’re prepping for a friendly against Colombia – no disrespect intended for the upcoming proceedings in Chester, Penn., where the Americans will face the South Americans in October. Sorry, but that match just doesn’t have the same kind of juice. It’s a friendly.

It’s not a rockin’ stadium in Greece, where the home supporters were stunned to see their side draw with Georgia. It can’t compete in terms of drama with Stade de France outside Paris, where the home side proved that, yes, things could indeed get worse. Somehow.

No one around here will talk about the individual performances next month outside Philadelphia the way they will inEngland after Friday’s 4-0 result over Bulgaria, or the way the proud Scots will talk up the heroes of a meaningful result, a scoreless draw in Lithuania.

They won’t dissect the bad performances the way they will in Belgium, where a good, young team fell Brussels toGermany by a narrow 1-0 score.

There’s not much we can do about it, but over here we’re just stuck with very little in terms of meaningful matches for the next two years, until the next World Cup qualifying cycle begins sometime in the summer of 2012.

Next year’s Gold Cup? Meh.

I know some people get fired up over it. I just have a hard time. After all, when we think about the real significance of Gold Cup, what are we talking about?

I’ll tell you what: we’re just trying to sort out who can and who can’t cut it when we get to the more important matches: the World Cup qualifiers.

Yep. I’m workin’ some serious jealousy today.