Alex Morgan's Goal Celebration — Alex Morgan in red USA jersey miming sipping a cup of tea with pinky extended

Alex Morgan's Goal Celebration

2019viral momentclassic

Published November 14, 2026

On July 2, 2019, US striker Alex Morgan scored the go-ahead goal against England in the Women's World Cup semi-final and celebrated by miming a cup of tea with her pinky raised. Reaction split cleanly along national lines, with American fans reading the move as a Boston Tea Party callback and British commentators including Piers Morgan calling the gesture rude. Within hours Alex Morgan's Goal Celebration was looping across Twitter alongside Boston Tea Party captions and sports trolling threads.

football memes gesture memes trolling memes 2019 memes celebrity reaction memes

Overview

Alex Morgan's Goal Celebration captures the two-second tea-sipping mime Morgan performed after scoring her team's second goal against England, on a day that also happened to be her 30th birthday1. Her gesture was simple, with pinky up, a slow pretend sip, and no smirk. What made the clip a meme was its timing, since July 2 sits two days before US Independence Day, which gave American posters a ready-made Boston Tea Party frame3.

Posts split into two camps. US fans paired the clip with Revolutionary War captions and riffs about dumping tea in Boston Harbor2. English viewers took it as proof of American smugness, with Piers Morgan arguing the mime looked less like tea and more like someone smoking a joint5. Writer Shea Serrano offered a third reading, joking that the sip was payback for an English player celebrating an earlier goal by miming swimming goggles4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Live television / Twitter (viral spread)
Creator
Alex Morgan
Date
2019

The United States women's team faced England in the semi-final of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup on July 2, 20193. Alex Morgan, who was celebrating her 30th birthday that day, scored her team's second goal and then mimed sipping from a tea cup with her pinky extended1. American observers read the move as a riff on the stereotype of upper-class English tea drinking, delivered two days before US Independence Day1.

How It Spread

Twitter sorted into camps within minutes of the final whistle3. Complex Sports posted the clip above a caption praising the trolling, drawing more than 9,000 retweets and 39,000 likes2. A fan account using the handle @harrykanefc leaned into the Boston Tea Party gag and collected more than 11,000 likes on a single tweet6.

Shea Serrano joked that Morgan's sip was retaliation for an English player's earlier goggles mime, and his post gathered over 30,000 likes4. Piers Morgan, who had been needling the US side throughout the tournament, argued the gesture looked more like smoking a joint than sipping tea5. CNET rounded up the best tweets later that night and tied the sip to the Boston Tea Party reference American fans were already running with1.

Timeline

2019-07-02

Alex Morgan scores against England in the Women's World Cup semi-final on her 30th birthday and mimes sipping tea with her pinky raised[1].

2019-07-02

@ComplexSports tweets the clip with a caption praising the trolling, drawing more than 9,000 retweets[2].

2019-07-02

Shea Serrano jokes that the sip is retaliation for an English player's earlier goggles mime, collecting over 30,000 likes[4].

2019-07-02

Piers Morgan publicly argues the gesture looks like someone smoking a joint rather than sipping tea[5].

2019-07-02

A fan account tweeting under @harrykanefc posts a Boston Tea Party callback that collects over 11,000 likes[6].

2019-07-03

CNET publishes a round-up of the sipping-tea jokes and the US versus England meme exchange[1].

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How to Use This Meme

Posts typically pair the goal clip or a freeze-frame of the pinky-up sip with Boston Tea Party captions, 1776 references, or any rivalry context where one party is politely taunting another. The gesture often stands in for calmly savoring a win.

Frequently Asked Questions