Happy birthday, Alex Morgan! Remembering her birthday goal at the 2019 Women's World Cup
Happy Birthday! Today is Alex Morgan's 31st birthday. For the U.S. Women's National Team and Orlando Pride star, though, her 30th will be hard to top.
Last year, Morgan co-captained the USWNT squad that went on to win the Women's World Cup. She earned the tournament's Silver Boot Award with six goals and three assists.
None were more memorable than the one she scored on July 2, when the Team USA played England in the semifinals. Though the U.S. was on an 11-game World Cup winning streak, the two teams had drawn in their last matchup in the 2019 SheBelieves Cup. They traded goals in the first 20 minutes before Morgan scored the tiebreaker.
In the 31st minute, Lindsey Horan made a crossing pass that was timed perfectly for Morgan, who sprinted forward and headed the ball into the goal. It made Morgan the first Women's World Cup player to score a goal on her birthday.
To top it all off, she went viral with her celebration that threw it back to the Boston Tea Party.
Morgan's score held and the U.S. won 2-1, then defeated the Netherlands in the final for their second consecutive World Cup championship.
This year, Morgan's birthday likely won't contain quite so much celebration. Her NWSL team, the Orlando Pride, withdrew from the Challenge Cup due to COVID-19, and many believed she would not have participated anyway after having a baby in May.
Still, Morgan's been watching the tournament from home and seems to like what she's seeing.
Sports video of the day
Columnist Nancy Armour, who covered the Women's World Cup live, discusses the 2019 team's legacy.
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Sports on TV
Golf (live): The PGA Tour continues with the Rocket Mortgage Classic from Detroit. Live coverage will run from 3-6 ET on Golf Channel and streamed on nbcsports.com.
Soccer (live): NBCSN continues its Premier League coverage with two games. First, Sheffield United takes on Tottenham Hotspur at noon ET, followed by Liverpool and Manchester City at 3:10 ET.
MLB (classic): Relive the Washington Nationals' postseason run last year with Games 3 and 4 of their NLCS sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals on MLB Network. Game 3 is at 1 ET, with Game 4 at 3 ET. Also on MLB Network, Game 5 of the 2014 NLCS, known for Travis Ishikawa's pennant-clinching walk-off homer, is showing at 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. ET.