outside!
DA
I respectfully disagree that they "...compete for the same kids..." At least when it comes to girls. The highest rated LAGSD team on YSR is their '04 team (which interestingly enough is missing a whole lot of games). Look at the make up of that LAGSD team (14 of 17 girls from Carlsbad). Then go and look up the Surf '04 team make up (5 girls from OC, 4 from Chula Vista, Poway, Escondido, etc...). Families are driving past LASGD to get to Surf. Surf had an advantage when they were the only SD club with ECNL and things may be changing but historically Surf has drawn players from a larger area and all of the other clubs had to fight like heck to hold into their players. If you still disagree with me go look up the rankings for the 2 clubs (girls side) and compare where each club has teams ranked.
PS No I don't have an axe to grind. Yes my kid played at LAGSD (with many on that '04 team), but no longer plays there.
PSS This is not intended to take anything away from how hard the girls work (at all of the top SD clubs); there are phenomenal women working hard at all of the referenced clubs, and deserve to be recognized for their efforts and talent.
The text table below (I hope it survives the formatting translation when I post) shows the current GDA 2004 standings. Both teams appear to have very similar records and according to you LAGSD has mostly local players where Surf appears to recruit more heavily. If players are driving past LAGSD, then maybe they should reconsider.
Rank U-15 Southwest Division GP W L T Pts GF GA GD Pts/GP
1 LA Galaxy San Diego U-15 [PLAYOFFS 4] 19 15 4 0 45 49 15 34 2.3684
2 Legends FC U-15 [PLAYOFFS 8] 16 11 2 3 36 39 22 17 2.25
3 San Diego Surf U-15 [PLAYOFFS 9] 13 9 2 2 29 34 15 19 2.2308
4 Beach Futbol Club U-15 [WILDCARD 2] 18 11 7 0 33 48 36 12 1.8333
5 Real So Cal U-15 [WILDCARD 4] 14 7 4 3 24 23 23 0 1.7143
6 LA Galaxy U-15 [WILDCARD 6] 16 7 5 4 25 30 25 5 1.5625
7 So Cal Blues Soccer Club U-15 20 8 10 2 26 47 37 10 1.3