I watched two soccer games! ..... and Pamplona is ticking me off

Well well, I guess miracles will never cease, I actually watched two soccer games in their entirety. 

So on Saturday, after I got home from work, I was too beat to do any yard work. Plus it was just too damn hot. So I plopped myself on the couch in front of the tv, not to watch soccer, or bullfights, but to watch a movie. Nothing in particular, just a movie. So I went to Netflix, I went to Prime, I went to Disney, I even went as so far to go to Tubi. What the hell is Tubi?

Anyway, I found a couple of movies and started to watch them but within 10 minutes I turned them both off, they were lame. Both of them were horror films but lost my interest quickly. It is hard to find a good horror film these days.

So, I wandered over to the World Cup. Why am I doing this I asked myself. Because there is absolutely nothing else to do I responded.

So I did, I watch all of England vs Norway, and then I watched all of Argentina vs Switzerland. And both games went into extra time so it was a hell of a lot of soccer to sit through!

First, why are they playing games in Miami? Humidity people, the humidity!

Anyway, England vs Argentina is going to be a game for the ages. Spain vs France will be good too. Did this bring me back into the soccer ranks? No, no it didn't. But whatever, I'll watch it when I have to I guess. But never MLS, never. 

On to Pamplona. Pamplona is kind of ticking me off I need to say. 

There are so many damn people trying to run with the bulls it is insane. There are always a lot of people but every year it seems to get worse. And these damn people that don't follow the rules and giving mostly Americans a bad name, as if we didn't already have a bad name. 

First off, I said I would post a YouTube link to the channel that shows the bullruns the most. That is RTVE Play. They do two videos a day of note, one that is the run as it happens, and the other is a highlight video a few hours later. The highlight video is fun to watch because you can see all the runners fighting each other, not to get away from the bulls but trying to somehow get in front of the bulls, (which is the idea after all.) But the runners grab each other, push each other, tug on each other's shirts, push and shove. I would be mad as hell if I were running with the bulls only to have some jerk off come out of nowhere and shove me to the side. Madness.

Here are some links from the first day, if you watch one then it is easy to start finding the videos from the other days in your feed. They just start coming up naturally.

Live video from Day 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TutmbSQi19c

Highlight video from Day 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcDSeBnS15M

Anyway, back to me being ticked off. 

First, way too many people. Look at this photo.

The sea of people on the left of the photo aren't even runners, they are just trying to catch a glimpse. Most of them aren't even going to be able to see anything! Go have breakfast, what the hell are you doing? Then of course the runners on the right, how can you even hope to run next to a bull with that many people? Huh, how!? 

They need to start limiting how many people can run, seriously.

Anyway, on to Americans making fools of themselves. Check this guy out.

This dumb ass painted his face like the Joker and ran with the bulls. Now, some people might say "how awesome, good for him. He's having fun!"

No, not good for him. It is strictly against the rules to run in any type of costume. Also, 100% no recording devises, no phones, no cameras, no headsets, nothing. It is too dangerous being out there with the bulls and you need to be completely focused on the bulls, not on your camera. 

Don't believe me? Check this photo out, (warning, kind of graphic image)

So this guy was just minding his own business, ended up on the ground with some other runners, now he has a bull's horn buried deep within his arm. Yikes. This is serious stuff people.

So, back to the Joker. He got away with running his first day, but got carried away by the police after the run and while he was hanging around in the plaza de toros with others. I'm sure he was given a fine and told he could not run anymore.

Well, the next day, he was back again, just this time without the face paint but still with the green hair. The police nabbed him quickly and escorted him off of the course. They may have fined him again. According to this photo it says he can be fined up to 6000 Euros.

I hope they do fine him, I hope they make him very unwelcome in Pamplona.

See, the problem is with people like this is they make it about themselves. They want to be the center of attention however when it comes to the bulls and the fairs in Spain, the bulls are the center of attention. They are the ones that are going to be put to death in the plaza that afternoon. Why make it about yourself? The world of the bulls is about the bulls, its not about you Ugly American.

And lastly, there is a girl that is lucky to be alive today. I don't know if she is American or not, but I wouldn't doubt it. Here is a link to today's highlight video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGAzV9Ygm6o

At the 5:00 mark, the video starts to show runners and bulls in the dreaded "callejon" that leads into the bullring. This is a very dangerous part of the course because it narrows and becomes somewhat of a bottleneck. 

Today's bulls were from the dreaded Miura ranch. They are very big, and with huge horns. 

So this girl ends up on the ground in the callejon along with a bunch of other runners. At the 5:08 mark, she starts to do something you should never do, start to get up. At the 5:13 mark she is getting up and has a bull running at full force right next to her. She is damn lucky nothing happened, she escaped death. Oh, and the worst part of it, she had a phone in her hand. What is it with these damn kids and their phones? She was clearly breaking the rules and almost paid with her life.

One of the main rules you have to follow, and anyone that has done any reading on how to run with the bulls would know this, is you never get up if you fall down. Stay on the ground and wait for other runners to tell you it is ok to get up.

Why?

Because if you get up while a bull is coming you are a sitting duck.

That is how the American Matthew Peter Tassio got killed on July 13th, 1995, 31 years ago today.

For more information on that sad day please see this post from my bullfight blog where I talk about it a little bit and provide two photos from that day.

http://blogplazadetoros.blogspot.com/2022/03/my-review-of-book-bulls-before.html

So, Pamplona has just one more day to go, and the World Cup has just a few more games to go. Let's get this all over with so I can get on with my life.

World Cup comes to an end ..... Pamplona begins

Well, that's enough of that. The World Cup has come to an end, time to move on to more important things,  the running of the bulls in Pamplona! The first run will be tomorrow morning with bulls from the Fuente Ymbro ranch.

But before we talk bulls, a couple of thoughts about the games.

Yesterday for awhile I thought I was doing pretty good, I predicted Brazil would get beat and I was correct. One thing I noticed about Brazil was their lack of flair, they just didn't play that old style of Brazilian football, you know, "Joga Bonito". 

Remember this commercial?

I definitely did not get this feeling at all from this year's Brazil team. This year's team was boring I thought, lacking any creativity, oh well.

Next, Mexico.

Boy was I wrong. I thought maybe they would go all the way. Nope, England took care of them pretty handily last night. Maybe I did jinx them, or maybe I just don't know what I am talking about.

Finally, USA.

Ugh.... I watched most of today's game, boy did the US fall apart. Too many mistakes and Belgium made them pay for those mistakes. It was almost like a high school team playing a college team, there was a clear difference.

For that I blame the closed league of MLS. We just are not on par at all with the European leagues and hence we put out sub par players. When are we going to learn? Probably never. 

I can't and won't support MLS as long as the league stays the way it is. It just sucks. That is why I will start following USL once they start up their pro/rel system. I think it is still a year or two away, I haven't really read up on it lately. I'll get around to it.

Now, the bulls.

Pamplona has begun! Tomorrow will be the first running of the bulls. I will post a link tomorrow to whatever Spanish tv channel will be posting the action. It usually is RTE.

There was one bullfight today, a corrida de rejoneo. They traditionally do a horseback bullfight to start the festival which they did today, and tomorrow will be the regular bullfights using the bulls that have run through the streets of the city the morning of.

OneToro TV is carrying I think 4 or the 8 bullfights, which of course I will be watching live when I can. If I can't watch them live then I will watch them later at night once I am tucked comfortably in my bed.

The bull runs I will watch during the day when I have a moment, they only take a few minutes to watch.

This year is a special year, it is the 100 anniversary of the publishing of Hemingway's book "The Sun Also Rises" which basically put Pamplona on the worldwide map. 

(from Google)

The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway's first major novel (1926), follows a group of disillusioned American and British expatriates in post-World War I Europe, chronicling their travels from Paris to Spain for the Pamplona bullfights. Narrated by the war-wounded journalist Jake Barnes, the story explores themes of love, loss, and disillusionment through his hopeless love for the independent Lady Brett Ashley, a relationship complicated by his impotence and her promiscuity, all while capturing the "Lost Generation's" search for meaning through drinking, partying, and bullfighting. The novel is famous for its terse, minimalist prose style and its poignant portrayal of a generation scarred by war.

Hemingway made Pamplona's fiesta famous worldwide, before his novel the fiesta was only a regional one. Now maybe only Rio's Carnival is more famous. 

Anyway, all is right with the world when the bulls stampede through the streets. 

Here is a video I posted 14 years ago to YouTube from ESPN2's coverage of the running of the bulls. It is from sometime in the early 2000's if I remember right. It was almost impossible to find videos of the runs back then, thankfully ESPN2 for a few years did some broadcasts from there.

(why it is age restricted I have no idea, just click on the link and you can watch it on YouTube.)

 

Morante de la Puebla returns to the plaza and all is right with the world again

Today was traditionally one of the biggest days of the year in the bullfight world, Resurrection Sunday. And no place is more at the center of that biggest day than Sevilla, where someone once described Sevilla as "so intensely Catholic it makes Rome look like a secular outpost."

Not to be left out though Madrid also held a bullfight, as well as Arles, France. Oh yeah, in case you didn't know bullfights are held in the south of France as well. Nimes, Arles, Dax, and Mont-de-Marsan being the places that come to mind the most.

Anyway, in addition to it being one of the biggest days of the year it was made even more so with the return of Sevilla's favorite son, Morante de la Puebla. I guess he just could not stay away from the bulls. And I would have to agree with him, once the bullfight bug bites you and you are infected it is hard to get away. I tell myself every year that I need to concentrate on other things but as the weather warms, the flowers start to bloom, and the grass turns green, I can't help but hit the bullfight news sites and see what is going on. 

And apparently it was a good day, with the news sites reporting that Morante cut two ears from his second bull, Peru's boy king Andres Roca Rey cut one ear from his second bull, and David de Miranda also cutting an ear from his second bull.

So, another Spring has sprung, fighting bulls dot the rolling green hills of Spain's many ranches, and all is right with the world again.

Blood and Tears as Spain’s Troubled Bullfighting Star Hangs Up His Cape

(by Jason Horowitz nytimes.com November 12, 2025)

José Antonio Morante Camacho, arguably the greatest bullfighter of his generation, lay flat on his back in the middle of the arena.

A 1,220-pound bull had just flipped him in the air, prompting a gasp from the sold-out crowd in Madrid’s Las Ventas, Spain’s most hallowed bullfighting ring.

As the 46-year-old, known across the Spanish-speaking world as Morante de la Puebla, did a mental scan of his scarred body, other matadors rushed to carry him off. Brought safely to the ring’s red perimeter wall, he got up, grimaced and walked off the pain. He eventually returned to the fight, drawing the bull close with elegant sweeps of his cape that elicited cries of olé.

When it was over, the bull was dead, the rare prize of its ears were hoisted in Mr. Morante’s hands and a blizzard of white handkerchiefs waved in appreciation.

The bullfighter embraced Spain’s leading far-right politician, bathed in a shower of flowers, Spanish flags and cigars. He turned back to the center of the ring where, with tears on his weathered face, he removed a symbolic pigtail, clipped to the back of his hair. Everyone weeping along with him knew what that meant. Morante de la Puebla was calling it quits.

“I felt an artistic exhaustion,” Mr. Morante said a few days after the Oct. 12 fight, in an interview at his riverside farm in La Puebla del Río, his hometown outside Seville in southern Spain. In whispered, languid sentences, Mr. Morante, wearing a wool Gucci suit and fedora, said he felt no lessening of his skills and that his career had been “upwards, upwards, upwards.” But, he said, “I’ve decided to stop before I fall.”

The withdrawal of Mr. Morante deprives bullfighting aficionados of a legend admired for his artistry, courage and imagination. Impresarios say they will miss his ability to fill the seats and the end of a rivalry with a rising Peruvian matinee idol. The leader of the nationalist Vox party, Santiago Abascal, had in Mr. Morante a direct line to die-hard fans of an increasingly polarizing and conservative-coded pastime.

But even many of the Spaniards who want to follow the example of some regions and ban bullfighting across the country appreciated Mr. Morante as a rare original, not just for his Elvis impersonator mutton chops and psychedelic rock band outfits but for his bravery in publicly wrestling with mental health problems.

“It exists, and I don’t like to deceive anyone,” he said as he sipped coffee to wash down medication that he said sapped his strength and caused fluctuations in his weight. He talked about his experience with electroshock therapy, his diagnosis of depersonalization, bouts of weeping and his decision to spend much of the year in Portugal, because, he said, “my doctor is there.” And while he acknowledged that fans thank him for destigmatizing mental illness, he added with a quivering smile that “it’s harder to stand in front of a bull.”

He and his family still live in his hometown, where locals drink beers under bullheads and photos of him in a bar that bears his name.

His farm by the river has a bull ring and a ballroom annex featuring taxidermized bullheads, antique bullfighting posters and lighted vitrines displaying his sequined matador costumes. His living room is decorated with the heads and tails of his greatest triumphs, shrines to some of Spain’s most storied matadors and sculptures of cherubs and saints.

A plate featuring Spain’s dictator Francisco Franco hangs by the kitchen counter, near scores of bronze trophies and a stack of his trademark pink and green capes, stained with blood and branded Morante de la Puebla. The place had filled up over the years, he said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time.”

Mr. Morante grew up close by in a small house marked with a plaque above a narrow door and exposed electric wiring. As a child, he said, he faked sleep as his father, who lugged sacks of rice in a nearby factory, carried him into the arena, a ruse designed to avoid paying for a second ticket. Once inside, Mr. Morante said he would open his eyes and soak up “a divine place.”

At home, he stuck a sausage on the end of a stick draped with a red muleta cape and pretended that the family’s dog, Paloma, was a bull. His mother yelled at him, but by 6 years old, he confronted his first young cow in a local corral, and suffered his first collision. But then he got up. “I felt that something unstoppable surged in my blood,” he said.

He dropped out of school and forged papers at age 14 to participate in the ring. At 17 he debuted, against his mother’s wishes, as a matador. He recalled his youthful “beauty” and success. But by the time he was 20, he said, his mother was weeping at his plan to marry a girl from the town, and leave home. That was the day, he said, that he suffered a mental crisis.

“I looked in the mirror. I didn’t seem like myself,” he explained. He began to weep uncontrollably, he said, and felt as though he was living outside his own body. A doctor diagnosed him with depression and a dissociative disorder, and soon after, he said, he received electroshock therapy in Miami, where a friend suggested medicine was more advanced. It helped a little, he said, but his condition remained.

In 2008, after three years of marriage and the birth of a son, he split from his first wife. He said he grew accustomed to the solitude caused by his condition, which was only compounded by the solitude of facing down bulls in the ring. Nevertheless, his career blossomed. While Mr. Morante spoke with envy about the sponsorships and stratospheric salaries of soccer stars, he earned — and spent — millions.

In 2010, he remarried. But as his family expanded with two daughters, the election of a left-wing government clearly antagonistic to bullfighting imperiled his profession.

Mr. Morante said he went “asking for a little help,” from Mr. Abascal, the hard-right leader who, he said, “doesn’t know much” about bullfighting, but who eagerly went to bat for a hero to his political base. “Show the deep Spain,” Mr. Abascal texted Mr. Morante during the interview at the farm.

Mr. Morante’s triumphs helped bring in bigger crowds, and bullfighting became more popular with younger conservatives. But his personal demons haunted him.

Confidantes in town said his mood swung wildly depending on how he did in the ring. He sat out some bullfights, and in others, he dispatched bulls he didn’t like the look of with efficient, lackluster performances.

He eventually got back on track with the help of Pedro Jorge Marqués, a childhood friend from Portugal who had become a dentist and his manager and who lived with Mr. Morante’s mother when in Puebla.

But during Mr. Morante’s absences, other stars rose, including the young Peruvian bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey. This summer, the two had words in the ring, and Mr. Rey infuriated Mr. Morante by telling him to take it easy: “Maestro, smoke a cigar slowly.”

Mr. Morante, who admitted, with a puff on a Cuban, that cigars relaxed him, said he decided a rivalry was good “only if it’s noble and in front of the bull.” The two had made up, he said, but added he had no interest in seeing “Afternoons of Solitude,” an award-winning documentary focused on Mr. Rey, who, he said, “looked for” attention.

On Oct. 12, Mr. Morante assured that all attention focused on him. He said he had made a deal with God that if he triumphed in Madrid he would call it a day. “The combination of my mental health issues, the suffering, it wasn’t a joyful situation,” he said. “But it was one of satisfaction. For having fulfilled a dream.”

And as if in a dream, thousands of young, preppy bullfighting fans stormed the ring and carried him out on their shoulders through the arena’s famous gate of triumph, though their ripping at his shimmering matador costume for souvenirs, he said, was “very distressing.” The evening ended with him on the balcony of a famous Madrid hotel blowing kisses to the crowd in a special silk striped nightgown that he had packed, he said, “just in case” he triumphed and went out in style.

The problem now, he said, was that he had no other interests. “Nothing” he said. “Nothing.” Contrary to bullfighting gossip, he said, he and his wife were still together, though, he added with a shrug, “I don’t know until when.” A local farmer who dropped off a couple of golden pheasants to raise on the farm began to weep when Mr. Morante signed for him one of the capes stacked in the kitchen.

“What else am I going to do with them?” Mr. Morante said.

His weary eyes instead lit up when Mr. Marqués told him promoters were already plotting to bring him back.

“I had a dream about that,” Mr. Morante said, adding, “let’s not call it a complete retirement. It’s a rest.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/world/europe/spain-bullfighting-morante-camacho.html

Soccer and thuggery, bullfights and bravery

So, summer is coming to a close, and I guess soccer season is still trudging along. The only reason I know this is for some reason in my YouTube feed a soccer video popped up the other day about Suarez spitting in a trainer's face after a bitter loss or something like that. That League's Cup thing again I guess.

Why am I not surprised? 

Could be the pink uniforms, I don't know. Anyway, soccer players are just as bad as their fans. Thugs, hooligans, whiners, etc. 

I'm so happy I exercised the soccer demos out of my body years ago, I was starting to get a nasty rash in places I couldn't really scratch in public.

Here is a BBC article about the situation;

--------------------

(bbc.com September 5, 2025)

Suarez sorry for spitting at opposition coach

Inter Miami forward Luis Suarez has apologised for his behaviour after spitting at a member of the Seattle Sounders' coaching staff following his side's 3-0 Leagues Cup final defeat.

"It was a moment of great tension and frustration, where right after the match things happened that shouldn't have happened, but that doesn't justify the reaction I had," he wrote on Instagram.

"I was wrong and I sincerely regret it."

The incident happened shortly after the full-time whistle, following a melee involving both sets of players and sparked by the Uruguayan.

Suarez grabbed Sounders midfielder Obed Vargas around the neck, before team-mate Sergio Busquets struck the Mexico international on the chin.

Moments later, the 38-year-old was involved in an altercation with a Sounders staff member and was held back by team-mate Oscar Ustari before appearing to spit in the coach's direction.

"I feel bad about what happened, and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to acknowledge it and apologise to everyone who felt hurt by what I did," added Suarez.

Speculation has circulated about the extent of any punishment he may face but Suarez added he wants to aid Inter Miami's push to make the MLS Cup play-offs.

"We know there's still a lot of the season ahead, and we're going to work together to achieve the successes that this club and all of its fans deserve," he wrote.

Suarez is no stranger to controversy.

The former Barcelona and Atletico Madrid striker has been involved in several controversial incidents during his career.

In 2011 when at Liverpool, Suarez was given an eight-match ban after being found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United full-back Patrice Evra.

He also served bans for three separate biting incidents when playing for Ajax, Liverpool and Uruguay.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cjd1k7e9z2go

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Here is a video link to the mele;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9vqubUp3Ok

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All of this just makes me appreciate my affinity for the bullfight even more. 

You never see this uneducated behavior in the world of the bulls. Bullfighting is built around honor, manors, tradition, and an undying love for the art. Bullfighters will do everything possible to not bring shame upon themselves or the bull. Their whole goal is to bring out the best in the bull which will make the bull look good which in turn make themselves look good.

I've done a couple of posts about this in the past but bullfighters are the epitome of ethics, respectfulness, and nobility. They will get injured, break bones, bleed from getting gored, and will still do all possible to finish the performance. 

Example: this year in Pamplona, a long time bullfighter by the name Rafaelillo suffered 8 fractured ribs thanks to a nasty bull from the Jose Escolar ranch but he still finished the fight and was awarded an ear for his efforts.

Also, just today in Albacete, Saúl Jiménez Fortes (a bullfighter famous for getting gored completely through the neck in Madrid many years ago) was performing what's called a portagayola. Where that name comes from I have no idea. 

It's a risky move, one where the matador kneels in front of the "gates of fear" where the bull will soon enter the plaza, and meets the bull face to face. With a sweeping move of his cape the idea is to make the bull pass as close as possible to the bullfighter without taking a horn to the face or chest.

How it is supposed to go - 

But, it did not go as plan today and Fortes was violently tossed by the bull. With blood running down his face he brushed himself off and finished his performance, like any matador noble would do.

How it went-

Anyway, I'm thankful for this time of year. The summer heat will soon ease, and the cooler fall days and nights will return. There are still a couple of good months of bullfights to enjoy then they will take a break until March next year. At that point the bulls will begin to stir more around the rolling hills of the Spanish ranches, helping us all to wake up a bit from our winter naps.

Sevilla will come alive with its Spring Fair and all will be right with the world.

As for soccer, just get the season over with quickly so we don't have to see Suarez spitting in people's faces anymore. 

Thug.

"Morante en estado puro" "toreo añejo"

I promised a Morante highlight (there have been many this year) so here's one, it's from May 1st in Sevilla during the Feria de Abril. 

Oh, to be in Sevilla in April. 

I have to get there some day, I've never been to Spain but I have to get to Sevilla in April sometime while I am still walking on this Earth. 

Anyway, this video is just a few minutes long, it's from the beginning of the bullfight before any wound has been given to the bull, so the bull is in his purest form. 

It always amazes me how 13,000 people, (the seating capacity of the Plaza de Toros de Sevilla) can be so quiet at times that you can hear birds chirping in the background and the sound of the sand under the bull's hooves. 

Then all of a sudden all 13,000 in unison yell out "¡Olé! "¡Olé!"

Just incredible. 

You don't have to speak Spanish to enjoy the video but it helps. At times Spanish announcers can be a little dramatic to say the least, but I love towards the end of the video how they describe Morante's bullfighting. "Morante en estado puro" or Morante in his purest form. Also, "toreo añejo" which means old style bullfighting, or aged bullfighting. That one is a little harder to translate, that one has more of a feeling in Spanish that doesn't translate well to English. 

I guess you will just have to watch the video to try and get the feeling. 

RSL on a roll and Patrick Eccles celebrates an anniversary

I check out ksl.com daily for my local news, and for some reason they keep putting up RSL game results. So whether I want to or not I've seen RSL move up the in the standings of what is the MLS freak show. Good for them, 3rd in the West I see.

I still don't care.

However, I would like to see them take the US Open Cup, that in my mind is a proper soccer championship. So not all of my RSL fandom has died, just the portion that has anything to do with MLS. US Soccer I suppose deserves a little credit for keeping the Open Cup going.

August 23rd in Houston I see is their next game. Good lord, that won't be humid at all. God bless them, hopefully no one suffers a heat stroke.

Moving on to more important things, "los sanfermines" just ended in Pamplona. A little over a week of running with the bulls in the morning and then bullfights in the afternoon. Along with 24 hours of drinking and other debauchery. 

Bull runs available on YouTube and the bull fights available on my Mundotoro TV app. It has been wonderful, everything so easily available to watch. 

This year was kind of special, although I think I am the only one in the State of Utah that knew about it. This year was the 10 year anniversary of  the goring of local boy Patrick Eccles. It was all over the news 10 years ago. He survived thank goodness, he very easily could have died. The goring was that bad. He did lose his spleen though, poor guy. And he took a lot of guff for running with a cell phone in his hand, a big no-no. 

I follow him on Facebook and Instagram and I was waiting to see if he was going to put anything up on the anniversary but he did not. I was kind of hoping he would put of the video that he shot on his cell phone. 

I did a little follow up post on my Plaza de Toros blog after I found a couple of photos that had previously gone unnoticed. Here's a link;

http://blogplazadetoros.blogspot.com/2023/07/10-years-ago-today.html

And here is one of the original photos, in case you missed it 10 years ago.

Ernest Hemingway once said, "Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bullfighters."

Bull runners probably feel like they live quite a bit of it up too.

The * Big * News

Pop open a bottle of champagne, it is time to rejoice! 

As I mentioned earlier this week there is big bullfight news that will permanently put the sport of soccer in the graveyard for me. (Well, I'll still be around to poke fun at MLS and RSL whenever needed, how can I not?) 

But, not since the 90's and the days of the old C-band satellite dishes has a bullfight fan in the United States been able to watch bullfights on live tv. And even with those C-band satellite dishes you had to have a Latin American package which included TVE (TV Español). 

Sadly when DishNetwork and DirectTV came around C-band satellite dishes went away. I know, I had one and getting them repaired became a nightmare (which I had to do a lot because of the high wind in Utah would damage the arm that pushed the satellite dish back and forth to pick up the channels) and the packages with the different channel choices slowly went away too.

Then in the early 2000's I found a website where you could order DVD copies of many of the big bullfights from Spain and Mexico. I bought several DVD's but with time even that got a little difficult as the guy who ran the website, I suppose from his basement, slowly stopped updating it and it eventually went away.

So, for the last decade or so I've had to be content with watching whatever bullfight videos would show up on YouTube or Facebook, or the basic video highlights on Madrid's bullring website.

But not anymore damn it !

Technology has finally entered the world of the bulls with broadcasts being available worldwide via the internet and the new app Mundotoro TV.

For just about $11.00 a month someone will have access to all the major bullfights in Spain. Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, as well as much much more. I would imagine they will also make the bullfights from the south of France available too such as Nimes and Arles. 

And there are no contracts, you can cancel at any time. But why would you?!

Amazing, absolutely amazing. Some good news finally, surely bullfight fans from around the world deserve some. 

This Sunday is the big kickoff with one of the biggest events of the year, the Easter Sunday bullfight from La Maestranza de Sevilla, "the cathedral of bullfighting". 

Then the following week Sevilla's Spring Fair will start with bullfights everyday for two weeks, then shortly after that Madrid's San Isidro fair will kick off with bullfights almost everyday for over a month. All of which I will be able to watch from the comfort of my own home thousands of miles away. 

I'm so damn happy I might just start running naked in the streets.

Who does RSL play this week? 

Oh, who the hell cares, I have bullfights to watch!

Worlds are colliding

The bullfight world and the soccer world have been colliding a lot lately. 

It has been odd.

Take for instance this Rangers FC tifo in a recent semi-final UEFA Europa League match in Glasgow. Modeled after a bullfight cartel it is a throwback from 1972 when Rangers won the "European Cup Winners' Cup" beating Dynamo Moscow in Barcelona. 

Now Rangers will play against Frankfurt on Wednesday May 18th for the Europa League title in of all places Seville Spain... known as the "bullfighting cradle of the world."

Ole!

Which leads us to Real Betis and the recent Copa del Rey.

Real Betis won this year's Copa del Rey by defeating Valencia. It is only the 4th major title for the little club (with a lot of fans) from Seville. 

Winning La Liga only once, (in 1935) they have won the Copa del Rey three times. 1977, 2005, and 2022. 

Their captain, Joaquin Sanchez Rodriguez, is a huge fan of the bullfight. And upon winning the Copa promptly celebrated by taking his personalized capote and performed some very nicely done veronicas to the delight of the crowd. (or was it before the game began? I don't know, I didn't see the game live, only the highlights.)

And to make things even more perfect, who happened to be in the stands that night to see it all?..... The great Curro Romero, one of the greatest bullfighters of all time.

And finally, to top it all off, to bring the worlds together and collide them even further, on the 30th of April, in Sevilla, bullfighter Antonio Ferrera invited Joaquin into the bullring to accept a dedication of the bull he was about to fight. 

(Bullfighters will almost always dedicate to someone the bull they are about to fight. Sometimes they will dedicate the bull to the crowd in general which always gets a big ovation.)

It did cause a little bit of controversy since it is customary that once a bullfight begins only toreros and bullring personnel are allowed on the sand. But the crowd didn't seem to care, they loved it.

   

So, an interesting past couple of weeks for sure. It's been fun to watch these worlds collide, it doesn't happen too often. Actually, it may have never happened as much as it has these past couple of weeks. 

Ole! again.

As I was saying