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 26 World Cup?

Here with me to talk it all out is Athletico Ottawa superfan himself.

Graham Ruffman. 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

the CPL whenever that is I'll have an atl Ottawa shirt from a classic football shirts to wear.

I do want to get to the topic at hand. I have some questions about this journey to find the

shirt, Graham. Like, were you there specifically to find the shirt? Did it just kind of pop up? Did you

decide I'm in Canada? I need a Canada shirt. I'm going to a strip mall. How did it all come to be?

No, I'm a nerd, Taylor. You know this about me. I knew that Canada had a beautiful anniversary shirt that I wanted to own. And so, when I went to, I forget, there's one in like Roger Square, a big sports shop there. They didn't have it. They only had like the normal home Canada shirts. I had to search out. I remember putting it to Twitter.

Toronto people, where can I find this shirt?

And they sent me very kindly to this strip mall in like the suburbs.

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