Top bins is football slang for goals that are scored where the ball hits the very top corner of the net - near the stanchion or the ‘postage stamp’ where the crossbar meets the posts. It takes high precision and power to place the ball in such a hard-to-reach area of the goal. It’s the peak of shooting, often a worldie.
In the penultimate match of the 2018/19 season, Vincent Kompany scored a thunderbastard of a goal, right in the top bins. Manchester City beat Leicester 1-0 that night and won the league with 98 points to Liverpool’s 97. Top bins, big grins.
The Dutch system from Ajax and the Netherlands national team in the 1970s, developed under Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff. The core idea: any outfield player can swap into any other position. A defender becomes a midfielder, a midfielder becomes a winger, and so on. It demanded versatile players who could press together, spring the offside trap, and switch between attack and defence quickly. Still talked about as one of the sport's great tactical experiments, and it changed the way the world viewed football.
The Netherlands' 1974 World Cup campaign showcased Total Football at its peak - Johan Cruyff would drop into midfield, defenders would surge forward, and the team moved as a synchronized unit that mesmerized audiences worldwide.
The last day of a transfer window. The last chance for clubs to sign players before the window slams shut and doesn't open again for a few months. In England, the transfer window usually closes at 11pm on deadline day in late August/early September for the summer window and in late January/early February for the winter transfer window. Sky Sports News has turned Transfer Deadline Day into a main sporting event twice a year, with the yellow ticker announcing transfers as they happen. Expect a flurry of late transfers and loans!