It was an exciting weekend for Canadian football fans with two matches against World Cup opposition. First came Qatar, the 2022 host nation, followed by Uruguay. Canada came away with a good result against the upcoming host nation, winning 2-0, but it did not go their way versus Uruguay, falling 2-0. However, despite the final score, Canada played well against the 13th-ranked team on the FIFA World Rankings. Caroline and Liam react to the weekend score lines and what Canada could take away from it. Liam also had a suggestion on what the best position for Alphonso Davies could be at the World Cup.

Plenty of other international teams played over the weekend, too, including Liam's host nation England. Things weren't great for England, who were relegated to League B in the Nations League. While not scoring goals was an issue for England, most fans decided that Harry Maguire in the starting eleven for both games was a more significant issue. On the show, Caroline and Liam give their opinion on Maguire's future with England and what Gareth Southgate should do with his defenders.

Finally, they dove into Argentina's chances at the World Cup, how the tournament could play out for the European teams and the criticism Cristiano Ronaldo is receiving.

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Caroline Szwed and Liam Horrobin were joined by a special guest today, former Canadian international Bob Lenarduzzi. Lenarduzzi played 48 times for the Canadian Men's National Team, which included a trip to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. He re-lived many of those memories with us on the show and about Canada's path to get there.

We went right back to the start with Bob and talked about his experience playing in England with Reading. He explained what the experience was like and how it all came about.

He then spoke about one of his heroes, Alan Ball, who he watched at the 1966 World Cup, which England won. Fortunately for Bob Lenarduzzi, he and Ball played together with the Vancouver Whitecaps. He told a great story about what Ball once told him in the dressing room at halftime.

Later on, we dove into Alphonso Davies's time with the Vancouver Whitecaps, the progress Canadian soccer has made, and how this is a fantastic time for the sport to be growing in Canada.

You can hear all of that and more on today's episode of Kicked Back.

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After a brief week away, Caroline and Liam are back for another episode of Kicked Back with plenty to talk about. 

Last week, Liam took a trip back to his homeland of England for the first time in six years. During his trip, the unfortunate events of Queen Elizabeth II were taking place but one positive that came from it all was the actions of David Beckham. Beckham waited in line to say his final goodbye to her majesty which had the people of England bragging about how great of a man he is. That led to one of Liam's favourite moments from Beckham which came in an England shirt. 

Speaking of England, there was plenty of discussions this past week over the squad selection made by Gareth Southgate. Should Harry Maguire still be in the team? Why wasn't Jadon Sancho selected? Caroline and Liam talked about the decision made by the England gaffer.

Another hot topic for the week has been should the Premier League start an All-Star Game? The comments on this have been mixed, to say the least, but Caroline and Liam gave a good perspective on what this could do for the league.

Also on the show, they talked about World Cup kits, Juventus' poor form in Serie A and an incredibly fast red card in Ligue 1. 

You can hear all of that and more on today's episode of Kicked Back. 

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Wow, this is an episode of Kicked Back you don't want to miss! Caroline had the honour to sit down and chat with legendary Canadian sports reporter and broadcaster, Gene Principe! 

To all the hockey fans out there, especially you Oilers fans, this is an episode for you, too! Whether you like soccer, or as Gene calls it, "calcio" or not, you will enjoy getting to know Gene even more. When we watch him as a Sportsnet reporter on national television, we're immediately drawn to not only his incredible talent and knowledge of hockey but also his authenticity, humour, charisma and his genuine appreciation of puns! Let me tell you, that's exactly how he is outside of his job, as well. When you listen to this episode, I am sure you will smile as much as I did, talking with Gene. His story, wisdom, mantras and perspective on life will make you admire him even more.

Now for all the soccer / football / calcio fans out there, Gene may cover hockey full-time as broadcaster but he's quite the expert in our field, too. He wore an Italian soccer jersey on this episode of Kicked Back, repping his favourite team in the world! I teased Gene a little bit about Italy not qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar but he's hopeful that the Azzuri will shine bright right here in Canada in 2026. We talked bout Gene's love the love of the game, how he didn't make his provincial team, his journey into refereeing and then broadcast. We also chatted in length about how incredible it's been to see the progression of the game in Canada on both the men's and women's side. Naturally, we then got into detail about Canadian and global superstar Alphonso Davies and how he single handedly became one of the biggest and best role model's for youth soccer players across the country... and the world. 

Whether you love soccer or hockey, or honestly neither, I promise you that you will give this episode and Gene Principe a big thumbs up! You're also going to want to stick till the end because Gene had an epic answer to this question that I asked him, "Who is one NHLer that could become a professional soccer player?" HINT: It's an Edmonton Oiler... or two. 

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Another exciting match day of Champions League football is behind us, and boy, was it a treat.

A new duo has been born in Barcelona, with Robert Lewandowski and Ousmane Dembele putting on a clinic versus Viktoria Plzen. Barcelona put on a dominant performance against the Czech side, but how will they play next week against a much more challenging opponent in Bayern Munch? Speaking of Bayern, they showed their class by handing a 2-0 loss to Inter Milan at the San Siro.

Rangers got an unpleasant welcome back to the group stages by getting hammered by Ajax. It was not pretty for the Scottish side, but fair play to Ajax, who many did not believe in after losing so many key players.

The most important topic of the show was Napoli's convincing win over Liverpool 4-1. Jurgen Klopp said in his post-match interview that his team needs to reinvent themselves, but how will they do that?

You can hear all that and more in episode 12 of Kicked Back.

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The football world was handed a HUGE piece of news this morning with Chelsea sacking Thomas Tuchel. This decision came after Chelsea was defeated in the Champions League 1-0 away from home by Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb. In the Premier League results have not been great for Tuchel either with losses to Southampton and Leeds United this season. Who will be the next manager? That is yet to be decided but it is rumoured that Brighton manager Graham Potter could be the next man in charge.

Staying in the Champions League, Erling Haaland got Manchester City off to a flying start with two goals in a 4-0 win over Sevilla, in Spain. Haaland has now scored 20 goals in Europe's best competition and is only 20 years old. His former team Borussia Dortmund also picked up three points beating FC Copenhagen 3-0.

Real Madrid overcame a tough Celtic team beating them 3-0, Kylian Mbappe scored twice for PSG against Juventus and Shakhtar Donetsk picked up a huge win in Germany.

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Football fans worldwide were gifted with a full slate of midweek matches these past few days for the first time this season. There were many thrilling games with Erling Haaland scoring another hat trick for Man City, Southampton knocking off Chelsea at home, and Liverpool leaving it incredibly late against Newcastle United. On today's episode of Kicked Back, Caroline and Liam get you all caught up with everything that happened in the English Premier League. 

With Haaland's early success in England, the question is now how many goals he can score this season. On top of that, with how good he's playing for City, who can actually beat the current Premier League champions? Additionally, who will compete with them for the title or is it already over? 

Over in mainland Europe, it looks like AC Milan will have some new ownership, including two North American superstars. LeBron James and Drake are part of an investment group that could become the new owners of the Italian Giants. On the show, Caroline and Liam discuss what this could mean for Serie A in North America and the impact the US brings to the World football stage.

You can hear all that and more on today's episode of Kicked Back!

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Manchester United opened the chequebook earlier today, splashing $100 million down for Brazilian winger Antony. Erik ten Haag has a history with Antony from his team with Ajax, which is a big reason why United spent so much money on him. However, many believe they are a massive overpay for the youngest, which is what Caroline and Liam discussed on the show. How does Antony fit into this Man United team? Where do the other young forwards like Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho play into this?

In other Premier League news, Manchester City and Erling Haaland come from behind to beat Crystal Palace, Liverpool dominates Bournemouth 9-0 for their first win of the season, and as a result, Scott Parker loses his job with the Cherries.

In La Liga, Robert Lewandoski bags another two goals for Barcelona, giving him four now in his first three games. In the last episode, Liam gave a bold take that the Spanish giants wouldn't get out of the Champions League group stage, but after two good performances, does he stand by his statement?

Also, on the show, they discuss Lukaku's injury, the future of Cristiano Ronaldo, and how much longer Aston Villa should stick with Steven Gerrard.

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On this bonus episode of Kicked Back, Caroline chats with Brad, a football TikToker who has reached over 500K followers on the social media platform. His mega viral videos are a must-see as Brad does a hilarious job of delivering football news while really telling it how it is. If you love football, this is a content creator you have to follow! You'll thank us later!

On this episode, Caroline and Brad talk about Harry Maguire and whether or not he's a virus to the Manchester United Team. We touch on Cristiano Ronaldo's legacy and what's going on with him at the moment. We crack some jokes about Kylian Mbappe and his situation at PSG (because who isn't?!) and we finish the chat off with a Champions League and World Cup prediction. Can you guess Brad and Caroline's pick for the World Cup? We're not giving any hints but what we will say is that they both picked the same team to win... and it's NOT Brazil.

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Many football fans around Europe watched in anticipation today as the Champions League groups were drawn in Istanbul, Turkey. There are endless high-quality games ready to kick off, and Caroline and Liam are ready here to walk you through each of the groups.

Fifteen different countries will be represented in this year's Champions League, with Maccabi Haifa, Copenhagen, Celtic, Dinamo Zagreb, Tottenham Hotspur, Eintracht Frankfurt and Viktoria Plzen making a return to the competition. On today's show, Liam and Caroline talk about all of those teams along with the rest of them.

They gave their picks for the top two teams in each group, the teams that could surprise, teams that will underachieve and then their final and winner predictions.

If you've got some thoughts on this year's Champions League, hit us up on Twitter, TikTok or Instagram. You can find Caroline on Twitter at @caroline_szwed and Liam at @LiamHorrobin. Then you can always find the two of them on The 90th Minutes social media channels.

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