The 2014 Johan Cruyff Shield was the nineteenth edition of the

Johan Cruyff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national footbal ...

(), an annual Dutch football match played between the winners of the previous season's

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

and

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

. The match was contested by

PEC Zwolle Prins Hendrik Ende Desespereert Nimmer Combinatie Zwolle, commonly known as PEC Zwolle, is a Dutch professional football club based in Zwolle, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football. They have played in the Ered ...

, the

2013–14 KNVB Cup The 2013–14 KNVB Cup tournament was the 96th edition of the Dutch national football knockout tournament for the KNVB Cup. 82 teams contested in 81 matches beginning on 28 August 2013 in the first round and concluded with the final on 20 April 2 ...

winners, and

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

, champions of the

2013–14 Eredivisie The 2013–14 Eredivisie was the 58th season of Eredivisie since its establishment in 1955. It began on 2 August 2013 with the first match of the season and ended on 18 May 2014 with the returns of the finals of the European competition and rele ...

. It was held at the

Amsterdam Arena The Johan Cruyff Arena ( ; officially stylised as Johan Cruijff ArenA) is the main stadium of the Dutch capital city of Amsterdam and the home stadium of association football, football club AFC Ajax, Ajax since its opening. Built from 1993 to ...

on 3 August 2014. PEC Zwolle won the match 1–0. Coincidentally, the match was a repeat of last season's KNVB Cup final, which PEC Zwolle emphatically won 5–1, despite conceding early and major crowd disturbance from Ajax fans in the crowd at

De Kuip Stadion Feijenoord (), more commonly known by its nickname De Kuip (, the Tub), is a stadium in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was completed in 1937. The name is derived from the Feijenoord district in Rotterdam, and from the club with the same na ...

(home of Ajax' rivals

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

Background

The 2014 Johan Cruyff Shield was the first Dutch football game played in the 2014-15 season. The Johan Cruyff Sheild has been played as the first Dutch football match every season since its inception in 1991. PEC Zwolle made their way to this edition of the Johan Cruyff Sheild by beating Ajax 5-1 in the 2014 KNVB Cup final. PEC Zwolle had a much easier path to the final, though, with their hardest opponent being

NEC Nijmegen NEC Nijmegen (''Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie''), commonly known as NEC (), is a professional Dutch association football club based in Nijmegen. The club currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, following promotion ...

, who got

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

that season. Meanwhile, Ajax faced off against

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known internationally as AZ Alkmaar, or simply and most commonly as AZ () in the Netherlands, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan#The Zaan district, Zaan district. ...

and

to get there. Ajax got to the 2014 Johan Cruyff Shield by winning the Eredivisie 71 points. 2nd Place Feyenoord had 67 points, which made them 4 points off the title.

Match

References

{{AFC Ajax matches

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Johan Cruijff Schaal The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national football ...