The US player’s miming of drinking a cup of tea after scoring has been interpreted in several ways. Was she making a historical reference? Or was it a coded message to Donald Trump?

So US “soccer” ace Alex Morgan celebrated what turned out to be the winning goal against our brave Lionesses by miming taking a sip of tea. Actually, Alex, that is not the correct way to drink a cup of rosie lea (perhaps your spies at the England team hotel should have paid more attention), but we’ll save the etiquette lessons for later. What we’re interested in right now is what Morgan could possibly have meant by it. We have a few ideas.

Mocking the Brits

Perhaps she was simply mocking us Brits for being a bunch of geeky freaks who drink tea of an afternoon, probably with scones or cucumber sandwiches or the Queen. Yeah, egregious stereotyping basically. In the same way as, had Steph Houghton scored her late penalty, she might have mimed guzzling a supersize burger meal with XL fries and a gallon of soda. No, it’s not pretty, is it Alex?

A history lesson

It could have been a nod to the Boston Tea Party. We had you in 1773, we’re taking you again now. Like the charming England fans who used to (maybe still do?) spread their arms and sing the Dam Busters theme during internationals with Germany, though probably not quite so bad because the history goes back much further.

What’s the tea?

Maybe it was Morgan’s’s way of asking “What’s the tea?”, an expression used primarily by gay men and drag queens, and which RuPaul’s Drag Race brought into the mainstream. What does it mean? What’s the latest gossip, essentially. Oh look, I’m the latest gossip, because I just fired us into the final of the World Cup. None of these make you look good, Alex.

A message to Trump

It was a personal message, directed at Morgan’s president. Hey Don, now that Megan’s been dropped, the girls have had a bit of a rethink over the whole White House boycott thing, and we’ve decided to come round for a cuppa after all, when we win. Which we will, USA, USA, USA. So run and put the kettle on, will you love … No, not Melania, you! And no, Ivanka can’t come.