Seeing TV highlights of World Cup soccer (excuse me, football) matches at a nearly unrecognizable MetLife Stadium (excuse me, New York New Jersey Stadium) the past month, and watching the US Men’s National Team games played on the west coast, got me to thinking about parallels between that team and the New York Giants. For a moment I thought it was too far-fetched to write about (and that may well be the case, you can be the judge). What tipped the scales for me, though, was this tweet on X during
the USMNT’s awful loss to Belgium that ended their World Cup:
The more I thought about it, the more parallels I found. Just for fun (well, it may not be fun to think about if you’re an optimistic fan of either team), let’s look at a few.
Embarrassing losses costing coaches their jobs
Unlike the Giants, who have four Super Bowl rings, the USMNT has never won a World Cup. Still, they have usually qualified for the World Cup, and they had a good run in 2002 (only 6 World Cups ago). The exception was 2018, when the USMNT could not even get out of their qualifying CONCACAF group (which includes North America, Central America, and the Caribbean nations, none of whom have been serious threats to actually win a World Cup since the US finished third in 1930). Like the 2021 Giants, who were coming off a promising first season under head coach Joe Judge, the 2018 USMNT had high hopes for getting to the World Cup that year and making noise when they got there.
We know what happened to that Giants team. By season’s end they were afraid to do anything but run the ball in Chicago, and then at home vs. Washington they lined up in “surrender formation” deep in their own territory rather than even trying to get a first down. Judge was gone soon after. The 2018 USMNT under coach Jurgen Klinsmann, which had reached the second round in 2014, had a dispiriting home loss to Mexico in qualifying and were shut out in Costa Rica. Then Klinsmann was replaced by former coach Bruce Arena, and with a World Cup berth on the line, lost at lowly Trinidad and Tobago and did not qualify.
Brian Daboll replaced Judge as Giants head coach and had immediate success in 2022, leading them to the playoffs and even a playoff win in Minnesota. The Giants were exposed, though, the following week in Philadelphia, and it was all downhill from there until Daboll’s firing in mid-season last year. The autopsy on Daboll’s tenure was that the first year success was a mirage, with wins coming mainly against bad teams or usually good teams having mediocre seasons. The USMNT in 2022 turned to Gregg Berhalter (who had already coached them once). Berhalter got the team through CONCACAF qualifying and into the World Cup, an immediate improvement over the 2018 result. The USMNT even made it through the group stage into the knockout stage, but once there they were exposed 3-1 by The Netherlands, and in retrospect, the USMNT’s group stage “success” actually consisted only of two draws and a 1-0 victory in a group with only one good team (England). Berhalter was fired two years later after embarrassingly being eliminated from a Copa America tournament that they hosted.
Getting a big name head coach
In 2024, U.S. Soccer hired Mauricio Pocchetino to a $6 million contract, third-highest among international men’s coaches. Pocchetino had previously coached a number of clubs including Tottenham Hotspur, whom he led to a Champions League final in 2019, and Chelsea. He also won a French league title as coach of Paris Saint-Germain. In 2026, the Giants hired John Harbaugh to a $20M per year contract, tied for highest in the NFL with the Chiefs’ Andy Reid. Harbaugh of course won a Super Bowl with Baltimore and has been a perennial playoff head coach in the NFL.
Right from the start, the experienced Harbaugh was a favorite for the head coaching position despite the success of innovative first-time head coaches such as Mike Macdonald, who would ultimately win a Super Bowl in his first try. The hiring, as well as modest turnover of the roster and the retention of general manager Joe Schoen, suggested that the feeling was that the existing players had not played to their ability under the previous staff. So too the hiring of the experienced Pocchetino suggested that previous coaches had not gotten the most out of the players. As reported by ESPN:
It’s a group that needs to be pushed to reach the next level, too. That was made clear by interim manager Mikey Varas after Saturday’s lifeless defeat to rival Canada. “The mentality is on the players. They know it,” he said after the 2-1 friendly loss. “We speak the truth to each other. I love those guys, but they know that mentality to fight, to run and to sacrifice, I can’t do that for them. That’s on them.” The belief inside U.S. Soccer is that a manager of Pochettino’s experience and acumen can help these players reach new heights.
Pochettino’s arrival will generate an unmatched level of excitement. There has never been a man of his managerial stature in the U.S. hot seat before. The next 22 months will see if he can live up to that billing.
I think it’s fair to say, based on the comments I see on BBV articles and fan posts in The Feed, that there hasn’t been this much excitement about a Giants coaching hire in a long time. Harbaugh is clearly the coach of highest stature the Giants have had since Tom Coughlin.
Now, get results
The recent USMNT experience in the World Cup shows how a seeming feel-good story can turn into something else in a hurry. During the group stage, the USMNT overwhelmed Paraguay, 4-1. In retrospect that was an even more impressive performance than it seemed at the time. The USMNT attacked on offense and dominated possession in a way we’ve rarely seen. Paraguay, though, went on to get out of the group stage and gave tournament favorite France a big scare before being eliminated 1-0. After that, the USMNT defeated Australia 2-0 and only lost to Turkiye 3-2 on a last second goal in a match in which they sat most of their starters. The USMNT continued their momentum into the knockout stage, defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0.
Then came Belgium. Spirits were high leading up to the game, despite the fact that the US had not defeated Belgium in a World Cup match since the first one in 1930 and had lost a friendly to Belgium 5-2 earlier in the year. Putting aside the political controversy surrounding the match, it was clear from the start that the Americans were overmatched. They could find no room to mount attacks against the Belgium defense. Belgium controlled possession throughout. The USMNT made a match of it by getting a lucky deflection of a free kick off the head of a defender for a goal, but as the match wore on, the supposed stars of the USMNT like Christian Pulisic (who was nursing a calf injury), Folarin Balogun, and Tyler Adams, were invisible. Belgium ran up the score by soccer standards, embarrassing the USMNT 4-1.
I couldn’t help but think back to the egg the 2022 Giants laid in Philadelphia in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, with the Eagles running up the score 38-7. Spirits were high in the run up to that game after the thrilling win in Minnesota, but it was clear even in the first quarter that the Eagles were going to dominate and end the Giants season, no surprise after they dominated the Giants 48-22 at MetLife during the regular season. Daboll’s job wasn’t in jeopardy after that debacle because the playoff run wasn’t expected in the first place, but it was the beginning of the end in retrospect. U.S. Soccer may not have such patience with the USMNT. Fox Sports is already saying that Pocchetino should not be brought back for the 2030 World Cup push.
I doubt that Harbaugh’s leash will be anywhere near that short. His five-year contract pretty much guarantees that, and Giants ownership tends not to make rash decisions in the first place. Nonetheless, there are plenty of question marks. If, like the injured Pulisic, Malik Nabers does not play to start the season or if he does and is ineffective, will the Giants have enough offense? If, like the USMNT back line and goalkeeping, the Giants’ secondary is just not not talented enough despite a better scheme and defensive coordinator, will the defense be able to stop anyone? Pocchetino seemed to have worked wonders early on but he was unable to make his side competitive when they finally faced top-flight competition. Harbaugh’s version of that test will happen right away, with games against the Cowboys and Rams in the first two weeks. Can he work wonders with a roster that ESPN ranks as 23rd in the NFL in talent? Or will the Giants wilt against top-flight NFL opponents?
Let’s hope instead that July 19 is the first, but not the only, time MetLife Stadium hosts a championship game in the next few years. It would only be an NFC Championship, not a Super Bowl in all likelihood, and it would only be on the dreaded turf and not the grass installed for the World Cup, but Giants fans would gladly take it.
