Román takes an ear from a La Quinta bullfight with many options for victory in Bilbao

Bullfighter Román took the only ear granted this Wednesday in the third of the Corridas Generales of Bilbao, where a ‘santacolomeño’ bull from La Quinta was fought, offering the trio many more chances of triumph than they ultimately took advantage of.

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In reality, except for the first bull of the afternoon, a very serious dark-brindled one that, almost six years old, showed a total lack of bravery, the other five, more or less clearly, offered the trio, with general nobility and varying levels of commitment, an opportunity that only the Valencian bullfighter took advantage of, and not with resounding success.

Because that bull of the ear, fought in second place and with artificial light to compensate for the dark clouds over the bullring, began to charge in the muleta much better than it had done in Román’s estimable greeting passes and in the banderillas tercio where his cuadrilla shone.

In fact, the bull already showed the full dimension of its charges in the two low passes of the opening, directly linked to a series of right-handed passes in which it followed the cape of the spirited bullfighter from Valencia with range and commitment.

Thus Román began a performance which, although meritorious and estimable, lacked a bit more slowness in the tracing of the passes, beyond the long pauses between series. That is, it lacked reducing the speed of such good charges a bit more, putting more command and less accompaniment into passes that, even so, reached the stands and that, after a devastating rear sword thrust, earned him that sole trophy of the afternoon.

But an even better bull came out into the ferruginous Bilbao ring, such as the well-proportioned sixth, a paragon of class and quality in its committed charges, with a slow and deep rhythm, as Tomás Rufo was able to discover in the way it galloped before the cape and in a knee-on-the-ground muleta opening in which the dark-brindled bull moved with complete clarity.

The problem arose when, already standing, the bullfighter from Toledo insisted on citing too close to the La Quinta bull, denying it the horizon and demanding too much, very covered and too low, which did not help those noble charges to flow, which he himself dedicated to obstructing in what was a flat, echo-less performance.

Román’s and Rufo’s other two bulls also had possibilities of success, but the third, of perfect build and clear nobility, ended up getting bored with the piecemeal and hidden muleta work of the bullfighter from Pepino (Toledo), while the fifth, a fine “calcetero” (stocking-footed), also felt overwhelmed by a similar approach from the Valencian, without either of the two performances gaining stature.

And if Emilio de Justo was unlucky with that unbrave and serious five-year-old that opened the plaza, with which he struggled with the sword without great resources to resolve against constant evasiveness, the ‘asaltillado’ fourth, after some disconcerting beginnings, did appreciate with a better attitude that the Extremaduran cited him with greater softness and precision.

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Only that happened only in one good series of natural passes that was not repeated in a long and declining work, finished, however, with a very good sword thrust.