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.)
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