Nice weather. A soccer match. A partnership between Microsoft Corp. and Special Olympics.

Monday’s hat trick at the Microsoft commons area was both playful and emotional for those involved in the announcement of a multi-year technology alliance to help Special Olympics modernize its operations by moving to the cloud.

Microsoft’s cloud will be home base for Special Olympics’ game-management system for its 80,000 competitions per year in more than 170 countries and for 4.5 million athletes. Big upcoming events are the 2015 World Summer Games in Los Angeles and the 2017 World Winter Games in Austria.

Lisa Brummel, Microsoft’s vice president of human resources, said this relationship ties in with the company’s Employee Giving Campaign.

“It’s a time when we spend time donating time, donating money to our community in the hopes of making this world a better place,” she said during the opening ceremony.

Added Special Olympics CEO Janet Froetscher to the crowd: “When we talk about this partnership, it will be felt around the world, literally.” She said they’ll now be able to track athletes’ personal bests and capture data on how playing sports will make athletes healthier.

This “game-changer” will also make athletes with intellectual disabilities more visible, she said. Much like Microsoft and Special Olympics, all the players are teammates, even when they’re on the opposite side of the ball and wearing red or black uniforms, as they did on Monday.

“All of those struggles we have sometimes in connecting to each other and respecting each other, when we’re on the playing field, that all goes away,” Froetscher said.

Monday’s match featured Special Olympics Unified Sports athletes from Roosevelt High in Seattle, Microsoft employees and former Seattle Sounders Kasey Keller and Roger Levesque.

Microsoft’s Jeff Hansen enjoyed his time on the soccer pitch and said he’s glad to be involved with the partnership and helping Special Olympics move forward with its mission of providing sporting events and friendship for children and adults.

Roosevelt High junior Joseph Vosma-Moody said it was an “awesome event” and stressed Unified Sports’ motto: “We try our best to make sure that everybody’s included. Unified is one big team so people don’t feel left out.”

Keller, a Special Olympics Washington board member, dusted off his goalkeeper gloves and made some diving saves for his team on Monday. He also doled out copious high fives to any player within reach and sported smile as wide as the goalposts he protected.

“It’s such a huge community connection between the Sounders, between Special Olympics, between Microsoft,” he said. “I do as much as possible to stay off the field these days, but when it comes to special things like this, you have to make exceptions. It’s always nice to every once in a while put the gloves back on and catch a couple balls.”