As the Fifa World Cup 2014 kicks off in Brazil, Google celebrates with a special doodle

Today, users will see a green and yellow football bounce onto the screen reflecting the colors of Brazil's official flag, when they land on the homepage of the search engine.       

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The letters that serve as the company logo spring up as arms and legs and an animated Rio de Janeiro vista pops up behind them with all the appropriate iconic landmarks such as the Christ the Redeemer and cable cars travelling up to Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Certainly, a visible celebration when the letters start hopping up and down.

Google's doodle marks the start of the football tournament's twentieth edition, the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil.

Brazil is hosting the competition for the second time. The previous time was in 1950.

The first match will be played  at the Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo at 21:00 BST today between Group A teams Brazil and Croatia.

Mexico and Cameroon (Group A), Spain and the Netherlands (Group B), and Chile and Australia (Group B) will play on Friday at 17:00, 20:00 and 23:00 BST respectively.

England's first game will be on Saturday 14 June, when it will play against fellow Group D team Italy at the Manaus stadium at 23:00 BST.

Carlos Botella, head groundsman for the Royal Verd company who's responsible for the turf at Manaus and six other World Cup stadiums,  admitted that the playing surface was in bad shape.

"We've started to implement an emergency plan to try to save the field and improve it as much as possible, but I don't think it'll be in good condition by the weekend," he said.

Tags2014, Doodle