The Winter Olympic Games are set to open Feb. 6 in Italy and the next Summer Olympic Games are scheduled 2028 in Los Angeles.
The big draw sporting events do not stop there with the men’s FIFA World Cup coming to the United States in 2026.
The 2027 FIFA women’s World Cup is scheduled to be hosted in Brazil, the first edition to be held in South America.
El Cajon’s Jordyn Bugg definitely has her eye set on the letter event.
In camp with the United States Women’s National Team in Carson, Bugg is training for selection to a series of upcoming international events, including the SheBelieves Cup March 1-8.
In the meantime, Bugg will be returning to her club in the National Women’s Soccer League for preseason training at the upcoming Coachella Valley Invitational Feb.7-21 in Indio. The Seattle Reign FC qualified as the No. 5 seed for last season’s NWSL playoffs and reached the quarterfinal stage.
This year’s Coachella Valley Invitational will host 12 teams from Major League Soccer and nine NWSL teams.
A central defender, Bugg hoping to win the league’s defender of the Year award in 2026.
“Having the opportunity to play at such a high level is the moment you’ve prepared for years,” said Bugg, who played youth soccer for the Liverpool, East County Surf, Rebels and San Diego Surf club teams.
Bugg is no stranger to international honors after winning bronze medals at the youth international level at the 2023 Pan American Games and 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
She played all but four minutes in the U-20 Women’s World Cup tournament in Colombia where the U.S. posted it best finish since 2012.
“We played our hearts out, we had a lot of firepower,” Bugg said of the U.S. team’s U-20 Women’s World Cup appearance.
She attended Christian Junior/Senior High School where her father Patrick is the varsity football team coach and younger sister Jazmyn plays on the varsity girls basketball team.
Jordyn was active at the El Cajon school is basketball, volleyball, soccer, cross country and track and field at softball. She was enrolled in online studies as a junior and senior due to her national team commitments.
“The most exciting thing was playing with all my classmates,” she said.
She won an Elite Clubs National League national championship with the Surf in 2024.
“It was a surreal moment to see everyone off to college,” Bugg said.
She had trained with the NWSL San Diego Wave while attending Christian and elected to sign a professional contact rather than attend college.
Bugg scored her first professional goal on March 22, 2025, in a 2-1 road win against the Carolina Courage. The goal won NSWL Goal of the Week Award. She was named to the NWSL Team of the Month for March and June, finishing the season with three result-changing goals in 25 regular season games. She ranked No. 2 on the Reign in most field minutes logged.
The Reign played a NWSL match in Snapdragon Stadium against the Wave on Aug. 29, a scoreless draw.
“I was a lot of fun,” she said. “I had been waiting the whole week. I knew I would have a lot of family and friends to the game. It was cool.”
At the national team level, Bugg played for the United States at the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in India. In 2025, she played for the USA Under-23 women’s national team and made her senior debut in a 4-0 win over Ireland on June 26. She has made five appearances for the senior national team thus far, though she did not dress in Saturday’s 6-0 win over Paraguay in Carson. The USWNT was set to face Chile on Tuesday in Santa Barbara.
She said she relishes her time in the senior women’s national team camp.
“There’s a lot to earn from the older, more experienced players,” Bugg said. “It’s a place for young players to achieve their dream. It allows me to be more comfortable in my role on the field and how the team incorporates new players. It shows they have trust in you, especially with the older players.”
Her strengths as a defender include her skill with the ball at her feet, passing the ball and being a tough call-winner.
“I’m pretty calm on the back-line,” she said of another one of her playing strengths, mental toughness
The SheBelieves Cup, founded in 2016, features four invited teams that play in a round-robin tournament spread over a week’s time in different cities across the United States.
National teams from the United States, Argentina, Canada and Colombia will comprise this year’s field. Host venues are located in Nashville, Tenn., Columbus, Ohio, and Harrison, N.J.
The United States has won seven of the 10 contested tournaments so far while France (2017), England (2019) and Japan (2025) each have won once. Germany has two silver medals (2016, 2017) as do the American ladies (2019, 2025).
Fourteen different countries have competed over the course of the tournament’s history and 11 have earned medals (gold, silver, bronze).
The USA enters the tournament ranked No. 2 in the world while Canada is ranked 10th, Colombia 20th and Argentina 30th.
