If you play for Barcelona or Ajax or for any top team or top side, they want to see the top players excel every week.
You can't get in the top four if you can't beat the clubs who are in the top four.
For the players, these top, top, top games or these top, top, top events - like a World Cup or a European Championship - are not common but, of course, something special.
I haven't fought the easiest opponents. You can show up at your best and still not come out on top.
The top teams in particular always have opponents who are highly motivated. If they drop a couple of percentage points, perhaps sub-consciously, then it's enough for the other team to capitalize.
I was a defensive lineman coming out of high school who was considered amongst the top maybe the top six guys, top five guys, and wanted to prove to my team that I was going to be a top guy going into college.
I was a defensive lineman coming out of high school who was considered amongst the top... maybe the top six guys, top five guys, and wanted to prove to my team that I was going to be a top guy going into college.
You can be a top, top player for 10, 20 years, then you become a coach, lose two or three games and you're out.
When you bring one of your top scorers, your top players off the bench, it really gives your team balance.
Basketball is sort of an interesting sport that, you know, the top player on your team makes so much more of an impact than the top player in any other sport.
If you can promise a vital and vibrant research environment as well as great students to your faculty, you can recruit some top faculty. The top faculty on your roster will then help you to attract further top students in your program.
I think in any profession, in general, you always imagine yourself at the top of it. And I'm not trying to say I'm at the top of my profession, but I've seen what the top people do and what the top people live like. And that's definitely something I want to be a part of.
You cannot play at your best and beat a top team one day and drop your level the next day.
If you are the top bowler in your team, you need to get the top batsman in the opposition. So it is expected and people just highlight that particular bit and make it sound like it is gamesmanship.
So many times, I watch games and think, 'Man, why is that guy trying to score like that? He can't do it.' But he's been told his whole life, 'You have to go get 40 if you want to be one of the top dogs.' It's my goal to build a lane where you can be a top dog, and you don't gotta go get that 40. You can go get four and still be a top dog.
Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.