'Men grab their sacks': Alex Morgan slams two-faced critics of her 'tea-sipping' celebration after goal against England
Alex Morgan has hit out at critics who slammed her for her controversial "tea-sipping" celebration after she scored during United States' win over England in the Women's World Cup semi-final.
Morgan, who turned 30 a day before the match in Lyon on July 3, scored against the Lionesses with a bullet header in the 31st minute in what eventually proved to be the winner in the hotly-contested match that ended 2-1 in the US team's favor.
She celebrated the goal by raising her fingers to her lips in what has been described as a "tea-sipping celebration."
The gesture did not sit down too well with those watching in the UK, and was branded as "disrespectful," "distasteful." Journalist and TV host Piers Morgan took it a step further, calling it "a declaration of war."
"It's bordering on a declaration of war," tweeted Morgan about the celebration after the game, later adding, "that is NOT how you sip tea. Dope, not tea."
He wasn't quite over it the next day either, continuing his rant during his appearance on 'Good Morning Britain.' "No one in Britain drinks with the pinky out like that," Morgan said.
"The sneering nature of using our great national past time of tea drinking to hurl at us in our moment of defeat, I was willing us to beat them so we could then mimic them eating Big Macs and large fries."
England and Juventus forward Lianne Sanderson wasn't too happy with her counterpart's celebrations either, calling it "distasteful" after the game.
"I expected Alex to grab a goal but I'm not that happy with that celebration," she said. "You can celebrate how you want, but for me, that is a bit distasteful, and I don't think she needs to do that."
"I'm a big believer in the American's and how they celebrate but for me, this was a little bit disrespectful," she continued. "For me, I could be wrong, but it's based upon playing against England, we love our tea in England, I'm not a tea drinker but that's what we're connected with so I think it's a little bit distasteful."
When questioned about the celebration after the game, Morgan said, "I feel like we didn’t take an easy route through this tournament and 'that’s the tea.'"
She was asked about it again during a press conference and elaborated further. "My celebration was actually more about, 'That's the tea,' which is telling a story, spreading news," she said. "Sophie Turner does it quite often, she's one of my favorite actresses, so it wasn't a hit to England in any way."
The 30-year-old also hit out at what she said were double-standards for females in sports and that they have to feel like they "have to be humble in our successes and have to celebrate, but not too much, and have to do something but it always has to be in a limited fashion."
"You see men celebrating all around the world in big tournaments, grabbing their sacks or whatever it is, and when I look at sipping a cup of tea, I'm a little taken aback," she argued, seemingly in reference to how both Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone and Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo had celebrated during their teams' clash in the Champions League round-of-16 this year.
"You have to laugh about it to see all of the criticism," she said.