Belgium ended the USMNT's 2026 World Cup 4-1, and if you've watched the New York Giants the past three years, you've seen this movie before. Different sport, same screenplay.
The parallel isn't superficial. Both franchises have cycled through the same pattern: embarrassing collapses that cost coaches their jobs, replacement hires who generated short-term optimism built on soft competition, then exposure the moment they faced genuinely good opponents. Both then responded by paying top dollar for a big-name coach with a track record. The question neither fan base can answer yet is whether that hire changes the ending.
The Berhalter-Daboll problem
Gregg Berhalter got the USMNT through CONCACAF qualifying and into the 2022 World Cup knockout stage. Brian Daboll got the Giants to a playoff win in Minnesota. Both results looked like progress. Both were largely mirages.
The USMNT's 2022 group stage "success" was two draws and a 1-0 win in a group with only one elite side. The Netherlands exposed them 3-1 the moment the bracket got real. The Giants' 2022 run featured wins against weak opponents or teams having off years — Philadelphia ended that illusion 38-7 in the divisional round, just as the Eagles had already signaled they would by beating the Giants 48-22 in the regular season. Berhalter got fired after the USMNT were knocked out of a Copa America they hosted. Daboll was gone mid-season last year.
Neither exit was a surprise. Both were overdue.
Big money, big names, familiar questions
U.S. Soccer responded by signing Mauricio Pochettino to a $6 million annual contract — third-highest among international men's coaches. The Giants went further, handing John Harbaugh $20 million per year, tied for the highest head coaching salary in the NFL. Two franchises, same diagnosis: the problem wasn't the players, it was the coaching.
Pochettino's early results backed that theory. The USMNT overwhelmed Paraguay 4-1 in the group stage — a result that aged well when Paraguay went on to push France to a 1-0 loss before being eliminated. They beat Australia 2-0. They only dropped a match to Türkiye 3-2 with a rotated squad, conceding on the final whistle. Then they beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 in the round of 16. The momentum felt real.
Then Belgium happened. The USMNT couldn't build attacks. Belgium owned possession. Christian Pulisic, Folarin Balogun, and Tyler Adams — the supposed spine of this side — were invisible. A fortunate deflection off a defender's head gave the US a goal, which mostly just delayed the embarrassment. Final score: 4-1. The same pattern as the Giants in Philadelphia. High spirits going in, clarity about the result by the end of the first quarter — or in this case, the first half.
Fox Sports is already reporting Pochettino shouldn't be brought back for the 2030 World Cup cycle. That's a short leash for a $6 million-a-year coach, but the logic isn't wrong: the USMNT looked like world-beaters against middling opposition and got dismantled by a side that actually pressed them.
Harbaugh's version of that test arrives immediately — Cowboys in week one, Rams in week two. ESPN ranks the Giants' roster 23rd in the NFL in talent. If Malik Nabers starts the season injured or ineffective, mirroring Pulisic nursing his calf against Belgium, the offense has no margin. If the secondary can't match up against elite receivers regardless of scheme, the defense won't compensate.
Pochettino seemed to have genuinely improved the USMNT until the bracket demanded something more. Whether Harbaugh can do what Pochettino ultimately couldn't — make a limited roster competitive against the best — is the only question that matters in East Rutherford this fall.
