Welcome everybody to Soccer 101. My name is Taylor Rockwell. Thank you all for joining us.

This week, we're continuing our closer look at domestic soccer in the different countries that have qualified for the World Cup.

And it's one who qualified automatically as host this week.

It's Canada.

Soccer in Canada has experienced significant growth over the past decade.

And the Canadian Premier League, the CPL, has served as a cornerstone of this development.

The league spans from Vancouver Island in the West to Halifax in the East.

I had to brush up on my Canadian geography for purposes of this episode.

And since its inaugural season in 2019, has helped develop domestic soccer talent in a way that hadn't really existed in Canada prior to its establishment.

But how does the league actually work? What are its strengths and weaknesses? How good is it? And how will it grow from here? Plus, what role has the league played in strengthening the national team ahead of the 2026 World Cup? Here with me to talk it all out is Athletico Ottawa superfan himself. Graham Ruffin. Hello, Graham. Upthe,

Atletti, Lettico Ottawa.

They have some really rolls off the tongue, that name.

It really does. They have, I see their shirts on classic football shirts

every so often. I see a lot of the CPL shirts.

I don't own one yet. I was saying to you before we started

recording,

I used to have, or I still have somewhere in my possession. I don't know where it is.

Graham is so upset about this. I am so upset. I have this beautiful Anniversary Canada shirt

from, I think, like, 10 years ago, and it's blue, because they used to wear blue, and it's got

this red maple leaf on it and I went I went and searched

for it in Toronto when I was there 10 years ago it got led to a strip mall in there in Toronto to

buy it so I'm gutted that I can't wear it for this episode but maybe the next time we talk about

...