Giant Killing follows the ups and downs of the fictional soccer team ETU - East Tokyo United. Which is very much down on it's luck. As the series opens they've lost their last five matches, after a long period of shoddy performance, and are languishing at the bottom of their league. Their fans have nigh on abandoned them and even the kids in their own youth academy think they suck. They are without a sponsor and are currently scraping along on money from the local municipality - clear signs that they could fold if things don't change soon. In fact they haven't done really well since the days of their star player - Takeshi Tatsumi.