East Tokyo United (ETU) has struggled in Japan's top soccer league over the past few years. The club has used every resource just to avoid relegation. To make matters worse, the team has lost five consecutive matches, resulting in abysmal morale. Even fans are beginning to abandon them, and rumors suggest the municipality owning the home ground will withdraw its support. With countless coaches fired and poor financial decisions in player hiring, ETU is in a downward spiral. The board of directors, pressured by general manager Kousei Gotou, takes a gamble and hires a new coach—the slightly eccentric Takeshi Tatsumi. Although considered a great soccer player in his youth, Tatsumi left ETU years ago. Since then, however, he has proven successful as the manager of an amateur team in one of England's lower divisions. Tatsumi's task will not be easy; ETU fans label him a traitor, and the team faces opponents with larger budgets and better players. Yet even an underdog can defeat a goliath, and Tatsumi claims he is an expert at giant killing.