Alejandro Talanvante preparándose para una nueva temporada. Video de Burladero.com.

In last weekends FA Cup game between Championship side Crystal Palace and Premiership side Aston Villa, Darren Ambrose struck a 37 yard dinger to rival the best in the game. The goal pulled Palace ahead of Villa 2-1 only to be done in by a late controversial goal. The draw forces a replay on Wednesday 2/24/10 and over shadows a huge goal by Ambrose which American veteran keeper Brad Friedel really had no hope in stopping. The gaffer loved it too.

Video Game technology applied to Matador Jose Maria Manzanares in an effort to capture which muscles are used while torerando.

Campaña fotográfica “Toro” Mobil Oil (Chile) realizada , en la finca de Don Álvaro Domecq, “Los Alburejos” Jeréz. Peter Müller Peter.

Shot on a little Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS, here is Ponce’s performance from Sunday 1/11/09.

On Sunday the 1st of November, Enrique Ponce made his debut in the northern Mexican city of Tijuana, Baja California. A much anticipated corrida resulted with one trophy for Octavio Garcia “El Payo” and no apendices for Ponce or the outclassed third tier Mexican Juan Chavez. All three matadores suffered with the sword as the weak toros from Teofilo Gomez provided little play. Ponce did show the media llena Plaza his greatness with his animals (he had a toro de regalo) with graceful cape work and his classic smooth nonchalant use of the muleta. He lost an ear with the first toro and with the second toro he extracted a respectable faena on a toro which in any plaza de importancia would have been sent back. It was with the toro de regalo where Ponce shined. Classic Ponce kneeling pases and tandas on both sides was spoiled under the lights of the plaza with multiple pinchazos. For his part “El Payo” show good schooling and great promise. His poise and classic toreo (less derechazos de rodrillas) thrilled the crowd as he cut the only ear of the afternoon on his first toro. Juan Chavez look as if he had an inferority complex and his fighting echooed that. Overall, Ponce sword work erased what could have been a historic afternoon. Hopefully we’ll see him again in Tijuana.

Curious little video on Newcastle, the town, the brewery and the pubs.

I found this little Docu-Short on Englishman Matador Frank Evan’s and some friends…

A rarity occurred this past Saturday. I had the day off, there were a slew of World Cup Qualifiers on TV and the internet and I was able to actually watch some. I prepared my day and planned to watch the dreaded Mexicans and the United States hopefully qualify of South Africa 2010. Before those games were played I was able to catch Portugal inch closer to a possible qualification playoff by defeating Hungary 3 nil. The Mexico-El Salvador game was televised first and of course Mexico managed to out play and out score the mighty team from El Salvador and secure a spot in South Africa. Mexico once again relied on the previous generation to get them through as Cuauhtémoc Blanco and Francisco Palencia provided the goals. At this point the day took a downturn. First, let me say soccer in the past decade has exploded here in the States. I’m talking the ability to watch games from England, Germany and Spain on a regular bases. With the internet and cable, one has the ability to watch any game, anytime. While I was watching the Mexico/El Salvador game, I also was keeping an eye on the Argentina/Peru game on my laptop, live. This is huge. I remember the days when the only soccer I saw on television was “Soccer Made in Germany” on PBS hosted by Toby Charles on Saturdays! Taking that into consideration, I was extremely pissed when I learned the USA/Honduras game was not on television, cable, satellite, or TV Pay Per View. The only feed available was a couple of extremely unreliable streams from Ustream and JustinTV. This was absolutely ridiculous. If the US won this game, they would stamp their ticket to South Africa and no US Network was carrying the game. Word later filtered down the Honduran Federation sold the rights to the game to some miniscule Closed Circuit company which only was providing the feed to businesses. OMG, what a disservice. So, I made the best of what I had. The feed was off more than on, I along with everyone else who was chasing the game on the internet saw small blocks of the game. The first half ended 0-0. By the time the feed came back on, the game was tied 1-1. I did see Conner Casey score his second from a masterful pass from Landon Donovan. The best play of the whole game. Donovan later scored his own on a free kick outside the box catching the Honduran keeper leaning the other direction. The feed at that point went off and on as Honduras pounded the US goal eventually scoring a chaotic goal which should not have counted because of an missed offside call. The Honduran Carlos Pavón missed two chances to tie with a failed penalty and point blank header. I didn’t see the end of the game but assumed the US held on. I had to wait a while to confirm the final on the internet, and didn’t even try to follow up on TV cause the lack of interest of the US media has pissed me off in the past. Moral of the story is, who saw this? I was able to watch Mexico secure their ticket, but I am embarrassed as an American I did not have that option as a follower of the US team. Its a real shame this has to be like this.

More images from Las Vegas…

The first of the much anticipated, debated and villainous bloodless bullfights in Las Vegas finally was held yesterday. There was not many people in the stands, so little Don Bull, the self promoted and larger than life empresario, postponed the start of the “Corrida” so more gente would come. Estimates had the crowd at 300 to 500 people. Matadores Eulalio Lopez “Zotoluco”, Alfredo Rios “El Conde” and Julio Benitez “El Cordobes” fought six California toros from the Manuel Costa ganaderia. Four of the six toros represented the ganaderia well, with the fourth “Nos Veremos” #94 weighing in at 505 Kilos being the best of the encierro and winning enough praise to where it was given the “Indulto”. None of the toros were actually killed, hence bloodless but as is tradition the 5 other toros will be sold to the rodeo circuit. “Nos Veremos” will return to Manuel Costa’s ganaderia and put to stud, deservedly so. Reaction to the “Corridas Incruentes” has not been warm from both the bullfight world and the Animal Rights groups. Much of this kickback from “Taurinos” around the world is ill informed since California has had a formal bullfight season for 30 years organized by the Portuguese communities of the California central Valley. Costa is one of 30 plus ganaderos in the state which have supplied the California corridas. All the Las Vegas corridas will use California toros. Manuel Costa’s toros performances gave many so called Taurinos a lesson as to the seriousness of the California bullfight effort and the quality of Toros Bravos. Now its a wait and see if the remaining corridas will draw the crowds Don Bull is hoping for.