The differences are minor from a competition perspective. My B2003 GK was with a CSL club last year and now is with a SCDSL club. I also referee Presidio, SCDSL and CSL. The lower divisions (SCDSL Flight 3 and CSL Bronze) are mediocre and the upper divisions (Flight 1 and Gold/Premier) are very good. This year CAL South has 5 teams compete at the National Presidents Cup Championship round in Tulsa:
BU13 CYSASL La Laja - Champion (CSL)
GU13 Hawks Academy - Champion (SCDSL)
GU 14 Pateadores - Runner Up (SCDSL)
GU 15 West Coast FC - Champion (SCDSL)
GU 16 California Elite Soccer Club (CSL)
For the National Championship, Cal South sent 16 teams:
Coast Soccer League (7):
Albion SC,
Carlsbad Elite 97,
Carlsbad Elite 99,
FC Golden State BU18,
FC Golden State Friedland,
Fullerton Rangers, and
Santa Barbara SC.
SCDSL (9):
Beach FC 98,
Beach FC Joyner,
Legends FC 98,
Legends FC 99,
So Cal Blues Baker,
So Cal Blues Dodge,
Strikers FC Chingirian,
SLA Nomads, and
Strikers FC North.
So, from just a pure competition perspective, SCDSL and CSL are sending about the same amount of teams to Nationals. There are great teams in CSL and great teams in SCDSL. Likewise, there are some very poor teams and poor coaches in both leagues.
The major difference is how the loan/club pass program works.
- CSL allows a Loan Player to go to a team that is in a higher bracket (silver to silver elite or gold), but not down a bracket (gold to silver). CSL prevents loans to bronze teams.
- SCDSL allows players to be loaned any which way under their Club Pass Rule. This allows a flight 1 bench player to be loaned to the flight 2 team and get some good playing time. The negative is that it potentially displaces a flight 2 player that may have been a starter but now is sitting on the bench, but some bench player now can get loaned out to the flight 3 team. An additional positive is teams short on players ... e.g. a 2003 Flight 3 team with only 10 players can pull up some 2004 flight 1 or flight 2 players to fill in the ranks. Players can have more opportunities to play, which is good. In addition, the rule has an exception and allows a GK to play two games between the sticks per day.
CSL covers a much broader geographic area, whereas SCDSL is a little tighter/smaller. The reality is with CSL we traveled 2 hours to games, with SCDSL we traveled 1 1/2 hours, but at least that travel was towards the coast instead of towards the desert.
One last note, CSL tends to make higher bracket teams that go through a break up start back down at the Bronze level if there is sufficient turn over in players. This can create a situation whereby a Bronze team is destroying the other Bronze teams. SCDSL tends to be more flexible. But, there is always that case where a team is playing in a bracket they simply do not belong in in both leagues.