A group of avid football-playing Nayland students originally from Colombia organised this year’s annual futsal game against the ‘Nayland Kiwis’.

The tradition started last year when the teams faced each other for the first time. When asked to repeat last year’s challenge, year 12 1st XI footballer and Nayland Kiwi player Harry Palmer thought ‘why not try and beat them?’

Both teams were supported by an enthusiastic crowd upstairs where chants of ‘Ah la bi, ah la bam, Colombia, Colombia ganara!’ erupted from time to time (basic translation: Go Colombia!).

However, a win for the Kiwis wasn’t to be this year. The Colombian side - featuring José, Andres, Alejandro, Alvaro and John - was too skilled, with the final score settling at 5-2. “Their foot work’s a lot quicker than ours,” Harry reflected. “They’re pretty technical, they cover the court well.”

Another complexity was not being able to listen in to the team communicating with each other. “You can’t understand them [speaking in Spanish]. You can’t understand their calls and that adds to their success,” Harry continued.

Harry’s looking forward to having another crack at beating the so far invincible Colombians next year. “We’ll try and beat them,” he said.