For the past few months, Māori schools from the wider Auckland region have been taught football by Māori Football NZ. Today 20 schools met at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Māngere to test out their new skills.
One archway has brought together the world.
Former All White Ivan Vicelich says, "At the moment we've got the Fifa U20 World Cup going on, what's good for these kids is they can watch top quality football on TV and come out today and have a kick around as well."
Full immersion and bilingual schools from Te Rakipaewhenua to Te Puaha o Waikato have arrived to compete in a football competition run by Māori Sports Awards.
Tiki Garrat from Te Tohu Tākaro o Aotearoa says, "We have attached many themes to the event, Rugby World Cup for instance, Commonwealth Games, Olympic Games and the theme today is around the U20 World Cup New Zealand is hosting."
It is not a very common game among Māori but these kids were keen to get involved.
Kaiako (teacher) Takurua Tangitu says, "Those are the games they're familiar with, such as basketball, netball, rugby, they were tempted to pick the ball up and run with it."
Each school represented a country so student also got a geography lesson.
Even though the kids may not know where all the countries are, they are certain about how much fun today was.