Bloomington High School [BHS] played host for what's believed to be the first international soccer match between FIFA member clubs in the Twin Cities — Peoria City versus Atlas from Guadalajara, Mexico.
The teams are U-23, or under 23 years old, and made up of mostly college students who are looking for more professional opportunities in the future. The June 20 match at BHS was a “friendly,” which is a one-off game not counted towards the regular season.
Even though it was an exhibition match, Peoria City defender Charlie Dickerson said they were there to win and treat it like any other conference game.
“This is an opportunity, not only for us, but for the whole of Peoria to kind of make a statement. And I think everybody's going to be hungry to perform and give it their best,” Dickerson said.
Victory
Peoria City won the Bloomington match 6-1. That leaves the team undefeated in international friendly play for the 2025 season.
This is the team’s fourth season, and for a newer team, Chief Operating Officer Bobby Parker said they're doing really well.
In Peoria City’s first season they made the playoffs, and then made it all the way to the national championship game in their third season.
This year, the team spent several weeks in the No. 1 spot in the country.
“[We have been] playing against some teams that are some long-standing clubs with a lot of history, and we were pretty excited about that,” Parker said.
Soccer in Central Illinois
Central Illinois has some great local talent, according to Parker.
Two players at Peoria City are former University High students Noah Grieshaber and Owen Pacetti, and several players are from the Peoria area.
Teams in Central Illinois also like to recruit international players, which is how Dickerson from Norwich, England, ended up in Peoria.
Dickerson said he got recruited by a soccer coach at Bradley University and has recently graduated. With his college career ending, Dickerson said fortunately he gets to play soccer this summer through Peoria City.
“Every day we're trying to get better in [the] short period of time that we have over the summer as players together,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson said the fans in the stadium are always loud and the team tries their best to never disappoint.
The fans
Peoria City has some enthusiastic fans who brought instruments to play and flags to wave during the game at BHS. The musicians and superfans are part of a supporters group called The 309.
“I've just been playing instruments and having a good time supporting Peoria City,” supporter Trevor Arbogast said.
The supporters group follows the team to home and away matches, tailgates the games, spreads the word about the team and helps grow the team in any way that they can.
Arbogast said going to pre-professional games is a good way for people who do not know much about soccer to get into it because it is affordable and family friendly.
Another supporter, Drew Clark, said “it's awesome to be here,” and that he and other supporters have gone great distances to support the team.
“We've been to Kansas City, we've been to Des Moines, we've been down to St Louis. I mean, even a few years ago, we had a few fans who went up to Canada. We love to support them,” Clark said.
Trumpeter Donald Barrett was also part of the supporters and played a lot of sports anthem "Seven Nation Army" throughout the match.
With every travel opportunity, Peoria City gets to show off its team to a new area.
“We really wanted this opportunity to expose Peoria City to the Bloomington-Normal market,” Parker said.
