{"id":385274,"date":"2026-07-03T19:26:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/385274\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T19:26:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:26:36","slug":"ishowspeed-misses-flight-turns-up-at-san-francisco-world-cup-watch-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/385274\/","title":{"rendered":"IShowSpeed misses flight, turns up at San Francisco World Cup watch party"},"content":{"rendered":"

IShowSpeed<\/a>, the viral streamer whose Bay Area appearances have drawn crowds before, made an unexpected return to San Francisco on Thursday after travel problems<\/a> apparently kept him from reaching Toronto for Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup knockout match.<\/p>\n

The online personality, whose real name is Darren Watkins Jr., showed up at Thrive City<\/a> outside Chase Center as fans gathered to watch Portugal face Croatia in the Round of 32.<\/p>\n

Watkins, a well-known Ronaldo fan, said earlier Thursday on X that a canceled flight had derailed his plans.<\/p>\n

“Who has a jet or plane in san francisco????” he wrote, saying he needed to get to Toronto because he could not see Ronaldo play.<\/p>\n

Instead, Watkins streamed from San Francisco<\/a>, where he rooted for Portugal and told viewers he was exhausted.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been up two days on my feet,” he said, flanked by security guards and fans. “I literally can’t walk right now.”<\/p>\n

He led fans in chants of “Ronaldo!” and “Let’s go Portugal!”<\/p>\n

Watkins’ channel has more than 56 million subscribers, and his livestreams often draw large, energetic crowds.<\/p>\n

Thrive City is one of the Bay Area’s official World Cup fan zones, with public viewings scheduled throughout the tournament. The Bay Area Host Committee lists the San Francisco fan zone as running through July 19.<\/p>\n

The Portugal-Croatia match was played at Toronto Stadium.<\/p>\n

Portugal went on to beat Croatia 2-1, with Gon\u00e7alo Ramos scoring in stoppage time after Ronaldo had tied the match on a penalty kick in the 68th minute. The win sent Portugal to the round of 16 and ended\u00a0Luka Modri\u0107’s fifth World Cup bid.<\/p>\n

Watkins’ stop at Thrive City came less than a year after a September Bay Area visit that drew thousands of fans<\/a> in San Francisco and Oakland. During that trip, fans followed him through Union Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, City Hall and other stops as he livestreamed across the region.<\/p>\n

In May, Alameda County prosecutors charged two men<\/a> with misdemeanor counts tied to an illegal sideshow that authorities said was connected to Watkins’ Oakland appearance.<\/p>\n

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This article originally published at IShowSpeed misses flight, turns up at San Francisco World Cup watch party<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IShowSpeed, the viral streamer whose Bay Area appearances have drawn crowds before, made an unexpected return to San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[146485,155504,124826,155505,146484,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-385274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-darren-watkins-jr","tag-gillette-stadium","tag-ishowspeed","tag-portugal","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}