Growing up in LA County, youth soccer was an ubiquitous sight up there with In N’ Out and the elote man. For the hundreds of thousands of boys and girls (and their parents) spending their weekends driving to tournaments across the region, the sport was a way of life.
This hasn’t changed. At the college level, the UCLA women’s team has advanced to the National Championship twice the past five years, winning it all in 2013 and grooming future players like Sydney Leroux and Abby Dahlkemper along the way. “Southern California is perhaps the biggest ladies soccer hotbed in the country” CoG’s Wendy Thomas has argued in the past, noting in addition to addition to local stars Alex Morgan and Christen Press, nine members of Mexico’s 2015 World Cup squad hailed from Southern California.