Amsterdam, Netherlands (SportsNetwork.com) - Defending Eredivisie champions Ajax Amsterdam opened its title defense with a comfortable 4-1 destruction of Vitesse on Sunday at the Amsterdam Arena.
Lasse Schoene struck for a pair of goals, while Nick Viergever netted a first- half tally and Mike van der Hoorn added a fourth goal for Ajax, which finished atop with table with 71 points last season, four clear of second-place Feyenoord to claim its four consecutive league title.
Viergever opened the scoring for the defending champs five minutes before the intermission and Schoene doubled the advantage three minutes into the second half before Van der Hoorn made it 3-0 just past the hour mark.
Marko Vejinovic pulled one back for Vitesse in the 84th minute, but Schoene then completed his double three minutes later to secure an opening-weekend victory for Ajax.
Also in the Eredivisie on Sunday, Mitchell te Vrede netted the only goal of the contest in stoppage time to hand Feyenoord a 1-0 win over Den Haag in a wild affair which featured 14 yellow cards between both sides.
After falling behind 2-0 thanks to goals from Alex Schalk and Lesley de Sa, FC Groningen roared back with goals from Tjaronn Chery, Michael de Leeuw and Jarchinio Antonia to claim a 3-2 win over Go Ahead Eagles.
In Sunday's final Eredivisie fixture, Netherlands international Memphis Depay scored on either side of the break to go with a third goal from Jurgen Locadia as PSV Eindhoven claimed a 3-1 win over Willem II.
