USA vs. Japan 2011: Alex Morgan's Goal Causes Fat Kid to Strip in Stands

USA vs. Japan 2011 Sees the Return of the Shirt Lift Celebration

There is something about dramatic and exciting soccer goals in the Women's World Cup that makes people want to strip off their shirts. I guess you can't really blame them. I mean the World Cup only happens once every four years, and team's are not just playing for themselves, but also the pride of the entire country they represent.

People surely have celebrated less in drastically more peculiar ways. For example Novak Djokovic ate the grass of the Wimbledon court he had just been trampling all over while winning the 2011 Wimbledon title. And fans flip over cars to make bonfires with them after their favorite team wins a championship. And that begs the question: if you are just going to light the car on fire, why bother tipping it over? But I digress. This is about people taking off their shirts.

The first time this unique celebration came into my consciousness was just over 12 years ago when Brandi Chastain knocked in the World Cup Championship with a penalty kick, ran to a knee slide, ripped off her shirt and instantly made sports bras okay to be worn as a top.

It is one of the most famous celebrations in American sports. And a young fan tried to recap that magic in the Women's World Cup finals in 2011.

Alex Morgan scored a thrilling goal to end a 0-0 tie at just past the 65th minute mark of the U.S.' battle with Japan in the finals. After the goal hit the net TV cameras zoomed into the rabid American section of a cheering crowd, and as these cameras panned the audience they got a young man flying out of his skull with joy.

Either inspired by Brandi Chastain, or just the universal rightness of lifting your top to celebrate a soccer goal, this kid lifted up his shirt. And let's just politely say, he revealed a little less than a six pack underneath that shirt.

Now, let me not quite so politely say, that this young man was more in need of the sports bra than Brandi Chastain was 12 years ago.

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