For members of the Harrisburg City Islanders soccer team, Thursday night's game against Crystal Palace Football Club of London is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It's a chance for them to test their skills against some of the best players in the world.

"If you look at Crystal Palace, they've been around for 100 years," said City Islanders midfielder Nicki Paterson, a native of Scotland. "They regularly play in front of 30- or 40,000-seat stadiums. They play against the Manchester Uniteds, the Liverpools, the Chelseas. You're going to have to look up to these guys, you know?"

The City Islanders and Crystal Palace will square off at Clipper Magazine Stadium Thursday at 7 p.m. It's a unique exhibition that will be the first soccer match ever played in the baseball stadium that houses the Lancaster Barnstormers.

Crystal Palace, established in 1905, was a founding member of the English Premier League, widely considered the best soccer league in the world. The club is a member of The Football League Championship, the second tier of English soccer, and plays its home matches in London. This match is part of a week-long preseason U.S. tour for the club.

This is the first time the City Islanders have faced a European opponent. The players are looking forward to the challenge.

"It's a club with a lot of history," Harrisburg defender Cody Reinberg said. "It's a massive club. It's right below the premiership, which is probably the top league in the world. Just for us to have the opportunity play against a team of that caliber and to have coaches looking at us is great. It's a chance for us to show what we can do here in the States. Hopefully, we can learn from a team with so much history and so much talent on it."

The City Islanders are tied with the Richmond Kickers for first place in the United Soccer League's second division. Their résumé includes an upset victory over the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer on June 30.

"I would say we are an extremely close-knit team," Reinberg said. "We're hard-working. We're in first place. We're at the top of the table. But it hasn't come easily. We just go out there and get results. We work for every game. We work for every win. We try to learn from every loss we've had. I think we're coming along and we have a lot of potential."

That potential will be tested by Crystal Palace. This is the most skilled team the City Islanders have ever faced.

"I've seen these guys play on TV my whole life," Paterson said. "To be honest with you, although the soccer is getting better and better all the time in America, it's still nothing compared to England."