From personal experience, Acceleration is more important than Pace. A guy in my class can run the 100M in 11.5 seconds, my fastest time is a touch over 12 seconds. He has superior acceleration to me but I have a better top speed, but due to the distance, I can never get close enough because he has built up a big enough gap at the start. Over 200M however I can beat him because his top speed is inferior to mine and there is sufficient distance for me to use my superior pace. On a football pitch, I would say acceleration is better but pace is very handy for counter attacking football