Alex Morgan's Goal Celebration

Submission 11,500

Part of a series on 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. [View Related Entries]

About

Alex Morgan's Goal Celebration refers to a celebration by US Women's National Soccer Team player Alex Morgan after scoring a goal against England in her team's semi-final game in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. After she scored, she appeared to mime sipping tea, which led to divided reactions amongst US and England supporters, the former of which reveled in Morgan's celebrations while some of the latter found it disrespectful.

Origin

On July 2nd, 2019, the US Women's National Team faced England in the semi-final of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. After scoring, she celebrated by appearing to mime sipping tea with her pinky up, which may have been an imitation of the way high-class English people drink tea (shown below).

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Twitter users were quickly opinionated on Morgan's celebration. Americans tended to be fans, joking as though it were a reference to the Boston Tea Party, a riot before the American Revolution in which colonial Americans dumped British tea into the Boston harbor. User @harrykanefc^[3] tweeted such a reference, gaining over 2,300 retweets and 11,000 likes (shown below, left). @ComplexSports^[2] also tweeted their appreciation for the celebration, gaining over 9,000 retweets and 39,000 likes (shown below, right).

Meanwhile, user @SheaSerrano^[1] joked that it may have been a retaliatory celebration for an English player celebrating by miming goggles, gaining over 3,200 retweets and 30,000 likes (shown below, left). Piers Morgan, who had been insulting US players throughout the tournament, argued that Alex Morgan appeared to be miming smoking a joint^[4] (shown below, right). Jokes were covered by someecards^[5] and Cnet.^[6]