The 11 Best World Cup Google Doodles of All Time

Google is going all-in for the international soccer World Cup. On Thursday, the world’s largest search engine celebrated the start of the tournament, held in Russia, with a homepage “doodle” drawing that shows the participating countries lining up to take the shot. It’s a fun little drawing, and it continues a long-standing tradition of Google celebrating momentous occasions on its homepage.

Normally, these doodles are the reserve of big names and historical figures. Previous works have celebrated the life of horticulturist Gertrude Jekyll, beer chemist S.P.L. Sørensen, and the strange history of the hole punch.

Google has a strong tradition of celebrating the World Cup, though. Here are 11 of its best works, on the same day that the first match kicks off between Russia and Saudi Arabia:

11. World Cup 2018 Day One

Thursday’s collage, created in collaboration with GlueKit, marks the 32 teams competing in the tournament with a designer from each country.

10. World Cup 2002

It was a simpler time. Star Wars Episode II was disappointing fans in theaters, Eminem was on the radio with a new album, and Brazil was on its way to racking up a fifth World Cup win. Google, founded five years prior, marked the occasion with a doodle that looks rather pedestrian by today’s standards, but serves as a fun reminder of how far the company has come.

9. World Cup 2010 — Doodle 4 Google France

The company holds an annual competition to allow children to create the Google logo. Here, the France winner has commemorated the World Cup with a warm red background of a green pitch.

8. World Cup 2010 — Doodle 4 Google Hong Kong

Some entrants stuck to a more tried-and-true format, with the winner for Hong Kong placing the logo on a green background to commemorate the match.

7. World Cup 2014 Day 12

Google got more creative for the 2014 cup. Here, the letters of the company name take part in a wave alongside the rest of the stand — bar the “L,” which is too engrossed in its book to take part in time.

6. World Cup 2014 Day 21

Google commemorated the match between Germany and Ghana in this Google Doodle, which ended with a tie of 2-2.

5. World Cup 2014 Day 25

Google had some fun with its animations, like with this penalty shootout where the letters run away ahead of the shot.

4. World Cup 2014 Number 55

Beep beep! This fun little animation shows Germany and Brazil facing off in car form. Brazil would probably prefer to forget the match itself, after losing 7-1 in its joint-worst defeat in history.

3. World Cup 2014 Number 36

This animation produced for the 2014 World Cup shows different countries laying out stands for vuvuzelas and soccer balls.

2. World Cup 2014 Day 27

Likely a common sight across the world in the coming weeks, this animation shows the letters quickly switching back to line graphs when the boss walks past. Worryingly, the line graphs are showing a downward trend.

1. World Cup 2014 Number 59

If aliens ever make contact as numerous sci-fi films suggest, maybe this will be the result.