Homecoming win for pair of San Diego County soccer products

It was more than just a successful homecoming for a pair of San Diego County soccer alumni at Sunday’s National Women’s Soccer League match at Snapdragon Stadium between the host San Diego Wave FC and visiting Seattle Reign FC

Not only did El Cajon’s Jordyn Bugg and Cathedral Catholic alum Maddie Mercado start for Seattle in the road match but each player also scored a goal in the Reign’s 2-0 win.

Hometown fans were ready for the two local players with welcoming homemade signs.

“It was amazing,” said Bugg, who attended Christian High School. “I had been coming here to watch games before I turned pro. It was unreal.

“It’s just great to be here and play in front of my family, and scoring is just a surreal moment.”

“Just great,” Mercado underscored.

Mercado opened scoring in the match, played on an exceptionally warm and humid afternoon, in the 17th minute on an uncontested head shot into an open corner. The goal was her team-leading fifth of the season and third goal in as many matches.

Ainsley McCammon drew the assist on the lofted pass.

Bugg followed with her first goal of the season three minutes later on another head shot, this time off a cornerkick, to double the Seattle lead. McCammon had taken the initial header and the 19-year-old Bugg took a second nod at the ball, sending it high over the goal line toward the far post.

There was no chance to save the ball as it dropped just under the crossbar. It was her fourth career NWSL goal.

The early 2-0 lead proved fortuitous as the Wave dominated the remainder of the match with a 22-9 advantage in shots and 61 percent possession.

Seattle goalkeeper Claudia Dickey posted the clean sheet with eight saves to deny several high quality Wave scoring chances.

A supreme defensive effort was required. The Wave turned in multiple shots in front of the Reign net in the 70th minute and was denied each time either by last-second defensive clearances or acrobatic saves by Dickey.

“Based on our last game (a 3-2 loss at Gotham FC on July 18), we were looking to get into the same mindset that we were going home with a win,” Bugg said.

In the previous match in New York, the Reign had led 2-0 for 82 minutes before the defending NWSL champions scored three goals in the last 10 minutes of regulation and stoppage time.

Photo series by Paul Martinez

The visitors admitted they changed their game plan after the Gotham match.

“We didn’t want to let them back in the game, gain momentum,” Bugg said in regard to Sunday’s match.

“I think we did very well in defending the box, not letting them get shots off, and Claudia made some amazing saves,” said McCammon, 18, who earned the distinction as the youngest NWSL player to record multiple assists in a game. “We knew we had to dig down dirty.”

“Having that collective mind-set helped us get the win,” Bugg reiterated.

This the third season with the Reign for both Bugg and Mercado.

The top eight regular season finishers in the single 16-team table qualify for the NWSL playoffs later this fall. The Wave (9-6-2) remains in fourth place with 29 points — one standing point behind the third place Utah Royals and one point ahead of the fifth place Portland Thorns — while Seattle (6-7-2) remained in 10th place with 20 points.

Teams play 30 regular season matches. The Reign has 15 left while the Wave, which sits four points out of first place, has 13 remaining.
The push begins now.

“We’ve got to get into a winning mentality, get as many wins as we can,” Bugg said.

Mercado leads Seattle with five goals on the season. McCammon said she saw Mercado raise her hand for the ball and sent a long arcing pass in front of the net.

“I was super happy she could get on the end of it,” McCammon said.

Mercado, who was part of the U.S. women’s national team program from the U14 to the U19 levels, scored 26 goals in 94 collegiate appearances at Notre Dame.

“Looking at where we are, we need to win games to put us in the playoffs,” said Mercado, who won a Southern California regional championship in 2016 at Cathedral Catholic and earned Western League Player of the Year honors in 2017 with the Lady Dons. “I think we definitely have the pieces to the puzzle to do it. We’ve got to keep this up.”

The Wave returns to Snapdragon Stadium for an Aug. 14 match against the Denver Summit. Before that, the team will play Sunday, Aug. 2, at the Washington Spirit (Fox 5/KUSI TV at 1 p.m.; PT) and Aug. 7 at Gotham FC (5 p.m. PT). The home stand continues Aug. 21 against Utah and Aug. 28 against Racing Louisville, both 7 p.m. starts.

MLS Report: San Diego FC still hoping to climb Western Conference standings during season’s second half

The second half of the 2026 Major League Soccer soccer season has resumed following a lengthy FIFA World Cup 2026 break. There’s much to be decided during the remainder of regular season play that extends through Nov. 7.

The top seven finishers in the Western Conference standings are automatic qualifiers for the upcoming MLS Cup playoffs with the No. 8 and No 9 teams in each conference table engaging in a wild-card playoff game.

Despite Saturday’s 1-0 win over visiting FC Dallas, San Diego FC remains out of the playoff loop in 12th place in the 15-team conference standings. The San Diego side, with five wins, seven losses and five ties for 20 standings points, remains three standings points behind ninth place Minnesota (6-6-5, 23 points).

The Seattle Sounders (7-6-3) occupy eighth place with 24 points. Dallas( 7-5-5) lies in sixth place with 26 points.

Six points separate eight teams in the standings (fourth through 12th places) to set up an exciting playoff race.

San Diego FC remains five points behind seventh place St. Louis (7-6-4, 25 points) and six points behind Dallas.

It stands in sharp contrast to the team’s inaugural campaign in 2025 when SDFC finished on top of the Western Conference standings and advanced to the conference championship game against Vancouver, setting several MLS records by an expansion franchise.

A crowd of 24,489 attended Saturday’s game at Snapdragon Stadium. They were treated to Alejandro Alvarado Jr.’s game-winning goal in the 50th minute while taking in a 19-7 advantage in shots by the home team.

San Diego FC dominated possession at 72 percent with a 92 percent pass accuracy and a 9-4 edge in corner kicks.

Manu Dudah and Kieran Sargeant drew the assists on the match-winning tally. The goal was Alvarado’s first of the season.

Vancouver (10-3-3), the runner-up in last year’s MLS Cup championship final, sits in a three-way tie with the San Jose Earthquakes (10-5-3) and Real Salt Lake (8-6-2) for the top spot in the Western Conference standings.

San Diego FC kicked off the second half of 2026 regular season play with a 1-0 loss at the Colorado Rapids on July 22. Loïc Williams scored in stoppage time for the lone goal in the match for the dramatic game-winner.

Colorado (6-10-1) sits one point behind San Diego FC in the conference standings in 13th place. Austin FC (4-8-5, 17 points) and Sporting KC (4-11-2, 14 points) bring up the rear in the conference standings.

Nashville SC tops the Eastern Conference with a 12-2-3 record and 39 points at the All-Star break, followed by Inter Miami in second place at 11-2-4 with 37 points.

Stars in their eyes
The 2026 MLS All-Star Game took place Wednesday in Charlotte, N.C. with tje MLS All-Stars defeating the Liga MX All-Stars, 4-3, in front of 35,197 fans. Son Heung-min scored twice in a three-minute span in the first half to lead the MLS All-Stars, who improved thier record to 4-1 against the Liga MX All-Stars in the series. The Los Angeles Football Club left winger earned the MLS All-Star Game MVP honors in the process. Charles Gil (New England Revolution) assisted on both of the South Korean international’s goals.

Philip Zinckernagel (Chicago Fire TC) and Evander (FC Cincinnati) also scored goals for the MLS side while Hany Mukhtar (Nashville SC) and Sam Surridge (Nashville SC) picked up assists. Luis Gabriel Rey (Chivas), Salomon Rondon (Pachuca) and Jose Paradela (Cruz Azul) each scored goals for Liga MX.

The game featured 15 players who participated in the FIFA World Cup 2026, including 10 MLS All-Stars: Matt Freese (USA, NYCFC), Tim Ream (USA, Charlotte FC), Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew, USA), Maxime Crépeau (Canada, Orlando City SC), Richie Laryea (Canada, Toronto FC), Son Heung-min (South Korea, LAFC), Lucas Herrington (Australia, Colorado Rapids), Steven Moreira (Cape Verde, Columbus Crew), Andrés Cubas (Paraguay, Vancouver Whitecaps FC) and Petar Musa (Croatia, FC Dallas).

Five LIGA MX All-Stars in the game who participated in the FIFA World Cup 2026 included Willer Ditta (Colombia; Cruz Azul), Israel Reyes (Mexico; Club America), Jesus Gallardo (Mexico; Toluca FC), Carlos Acevedo (Mexico; Santos Laguna) NS Erik Lira (Mexico; Cruz Azul).

Tim Ream is the first player in league history to go as many as 15 years between MLS All-Star selections. The USMNT captain was last an All-Star in 2011, as a young upstart with the New York Red Bulls, before departing MLS for a 13-year sojourn in England. Before Ream, the longest such gap between All-Star nods was held by Tim Howard.  Another USMNT skipper, Howard was an MLS All-Star in 2003 before heading to England. He was named to his next MLS All-Star team 14 years later in 2017, while playing for the Colorado Rapids.

There were five homegrown players represented on the MLS All-Star roster: Maxime Crépeau, Matt Freese, Zavier Gozo, Julian Hall, and Andy Najar. 

Orlando City’s Maxime Crépeau recorded six saves for the MLS All-Stars tonight, the most since Edwin van der Sar’s 10 saves for Manchester United in 2010.

Forward Anders Dreyer represented San Diego FC as a coach’s selection. The Danish international is tied for the San Diego team scoring lead with 15 goal contributions (six goals, nine assists). Fellow Dane Marcus Ingvartsen (11 goals, four assists) also has 15 goal contributions.

Other top contributors on this year’s SDFC team include Onni Valakari (three goals, five assists), Amahl Pellegrino (three goals, two assists) and David Vazquez (three goals, one assist). Duran Ferree tops the team’s goalkeeper cadre with four clean sheets in 13 appearances.
The format of Wednesday’s game pitted the MLS All-Stars against the Liga MX All-Stars.

An East-West MLS Next All-Star Game helped kick off MLS All-Star Week on Monday with the East winning 6-1 behind two goals by DC United homegrown talent Oscar Avilez.

MLS Cup wild card matches are scheduled Nov. 18, followed by the Round One best-of-three series (eight teams) Nov. 20 to Dec. 2, conference semifinals (four teams) Dec. 5-6, conference finals (two teams) Dec. 11-12 and the MLS Cup Final Dec. 18.

Hilltop High School alum Adrian Zendejas (class of 2013) is currently playing for the defending Western Conference champion Vancouver Whitecaps at age 30.

The tall (6-foot-5) goalkeeper initially signed with Sporting Kansas City for the 2017 MLS season. He was traded to Nashville in 2019 and traded again to Minnesota in 2020. He joined Charlotte FC as a free agent for the team’s inaugural 2022 MLS season. He spent the 2024 season in Sweden before signing with the Whitecaps in February 2025.

He also has played extensively in the United Soccer League with the Swope Park Rangers, El Paso Locomotive and Miami FC.

Photo Gallery by Karla Martinez
FC Dallas at San Diego FC, July 25 at Snapdragon Stadium