Alex Morgan’s celebration against England has proved to be a big talking point following the USA’s victory in the Women’s World Cup semi-final.
Morgan scored a fine header to put the US 2-1 up and it proved to be the winning goal.
After heading home the striker wheeled away and mimed drinking a cup of tea in celebration, poking fun at England.
England international Lianne Sanderson said on punditry duty with beIn Sports that the celebration was distasteful.
“You can celebrate however you want, but that for me is a bit distasteful and I don’t think she needs to do that,” said Sanderson.
She added: “I’m a big believer in the Americans and how they celebrate but for me, this was a little bit disrespectful.”
Football fan and TV presenter Piers Morgan tweeted to say “that’s NOT how you sip tea” while joking it was “bordering on a declaration of war.”
While some were unhappy about the celebration, others joked that Alex Morgan had “re-declared” America’s independence from England.
Even the USWNT tweeted about it, referencing Morgan’s jersey number and the original colonies that were fought over by the two nations in the 1700s.
“No.13 on her birthday. In honor of those 13 colonies.
“That’s. The. Tea.”
The celebrations also made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the UK, I Sport led with ‘Storm and a teacup’.
The New York Post splashed the headline ‘Tea Party’, with a picture on Morgan on their front page.
“Not since Boston dumped it in the sea has England been dissed with tea like this,” reads the opening line of their story.
Speaking about the celebration herself, Morgan said in the UK Independent that the celebration was a way to answer the team’s critics who had labelled her team as arrogant.
“I wanted to keep it interesting. I know Megan Rapinoe has the best celebration. I had to try and step up this game,” said Morgan.
“I feel like this team has had so much thrown at them and us. I feel like we didn’t take an easy route through this tournament and ‘that’s the tea’.”
The star later tweeted saying: “Thanks for the rocking stadium. Thanks for continuing to believe with us. And that’s the tea.”