When I the so-called experts talking about team speed and all they emphasize is acceleration, I just scratch my head. Are you watching the same game I am? Top end speed, max speed is important for team sport players and must be trained. The key concept is that in athletics you accelerate to top speed, in multi-directional sports you accelerate to optimum speed. Top speed obviously assumes more importance depending on where you play on the pitch/field. If nothing else, it will inoculate you against hamstring pulls. I plan on expanding on this in a future episode of the GAINcast, it definitely will be a topic of discussion at GAIN.