KNVB Cup: Heerenveen to visit ArenA in third round
28 September: Don't ask how they did it, but (unlike PSV and AZ) Ajax did make it to the third round of the KNVB Cup, in which they are up against SC Heerenveen. This was the outcome of the draw on Thursday evening. The team from the province of Friesland will come to the Amsterdam ArenA on 30 October, 31 October or 01 November (date and kick-off time t.b.a.).
The second round of the KNVB Cup (the first for the teams who represent Holland in UEFA competition) was a remarkable one, to say the least: Ajax required 30 minutes of extra time to beat amateurs Kozakken Boys, PSV were banned from the competition for fielding a suspended player and AZ surprisingly succumbed to SC Cambuur-Leeuwarden, currently 10th in the First Division.
The names of many amateur and First Division teams were in the bowl for the draw. Heerenveen was definitely one of the toughest possibilities. On the other hand: Ajax have a 100% score in cup games against Heerenveen. They played the Frisians five times in domestic cup competition and each time they emerged victorious.
The first ever cup confrontation against Heerenveen was also the most memorable one: on 20 May 1993 the two teams met in the final at De Kuip in Rotterdam. It was one of the friendliest finals ever, the two sets of fans had a great time and no-one at Heerenveen (who were in the First Division at the time) really cared about the defeat of 6-2.
Since that beautiful day in 1993, there were four more cup encounters: Heerenveen lost in Amsterdam on 10 November 1993 (8-3) and 07 May 1998 (3-0) and 27 January 2005 (2-0), and at home on 02 February 2006, when goals from Rosales, Huntelaar and Emanuelson gave Ajax an unexpectedly easy victory of 0-3.
The draw in full...
ADO Den Haag - Young SC Heerenveen
Heracles Almelo - FC Omniworld
MVV - FC Dordrecht
Feyenoord - FC Groningen
Fortuna Sittard - FC Den Bosch
FC Zwolle - Go Ahead Eagles
Cambuur Leeuwarden - Excelsior
FC Eindhoven - HFC Haarlem
De Treffers - NEC
Deurne - UNA
HHC Hardenberg - AGOVV Apeldoorn
Groene Ster - Quick Boys
Roda JC - De Graafschap
Sparta - NAC Breda
Ajax - SC Heerenveen
RKC Waalwijk - BV Veendam
As soon as Ajax announce the definitive date and kick-off time for the third round fixture, Ajax USA will announce it in this thread on Ajax Talk or (if the website is back up by that time) on the homepage. (Menno Pot)
Sources: Ajax.nl, SC-Heerenveen.nl
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