IShowSpeed is one of the most popular and fastest-rising YouTubers today. The American YouTuber (from Cincinnati, Ohio) gained popularity primarily through clips from his live streams being shared across TikTok by his fans.
Within the footballing world, Speed has become famous for his hilarious reactions to the sport. He does not have that much knowledge of the game, but this factors into making his reactions all the more genuine. These reactions often trend on football Twitter.
Once again IShowSpeed’s reactions are trending on the social media platform. His reactions to the UCL final performances of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Thibaut Courtois have people in tears from laughter.
The YouTuber. whose real name is Darren Watkins, can be seen criticising Arnold’s defensive awareness when Vinicius Junior scored the winning goal. IShowSpeed calls the English right-back dumb and stupid for not anticipating Valverde’s cross or Junior’s presence.
As the clip progresses, IShowSpeed grows more and more frustrated with the right-back’s lapse in concentration. He takes back considering Arnold as the best fullback in the world.
In contrast, the streamer is all praise for Courtois and his performances. IShowSpeed does not seem to be aware of who the Belgian is in the clip but gets visibly excited watching the goalkeeper’s saves.
Courtois’s save on the one-on-one against Salah especially got him hyped. As Salah controlled the ball and went for the shot, he thought it was a guaranteed goal, but when the Madrid no.1 made the save, the only words coming from the YouTuber’s mouth were “F*ck f*ck f*ck”.
To anyone who follows the sport even semi-regularly, it would be clear that the American does not really know football terminology. The terms he uses and comparisons he makes are often way off, and closer to American sports than football in the non-American sense.
Yet, his opinions aren’t far off from what others thought about the performances of the two players. Courtois was praised for his performance, and even won the man of the match award for the 9 saves he made to carry Los Blancos to a 14th UCL title.
Arnold while highly regarded by many and still considered the best right-back in the game today, was reprimanded for his lack of alertness, which allowed Vinicius to run behind him and put the ball in the net.
For the coming two months there won’t be much footballing action which may make life a little bit boring. However, IShowSpeed’s amazing reactions should continue, and fill the void left by no football for some time.