On this day (July 12th) in 1999 the Sky Blues, under Gordon Strachan, were about to begin their four match pre-season German Tour. WGS had signed Moroccan internationals (and both now CCFPA members) Moustapha Hadji and Youssef Chippo as well as Norwegian youngster Runnar Normann and the club was looking forward to a good top flight campaign in the upcoming season.
Today they were taking on Verbandsliga Südwest amateur outfit FV Speyer in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of the country.
The Sky Blues kicked off the tour with a comfortable 5-2 victory. Although a goal down after 11 minutes the Sky Blues took a 3-1 half-time lead. The Sky Blue goals came from a brace each from forwards (now both CCFPA members) Norwegian Trond-Egil Soltvedt and Australian John Aloisi plus a goal from Ghanaian-Dutch midfielder George Boateng (who has just this month in July 2024 been appointed the Sky Blues first team coach). The German team’s scorer of both goals was Roly Schmitt.
Though the complete German team details are not available their outfit also included goalkeeper Daniel Wermke plus Zamir Shpuza, Sven Hajok, Thorsten Effgen, Franco de Simone and Uwe Rudingsdorfer (who missed a late penalty)!
WGS made wholsale changes after the break and was forced to replace Gary Mac through injury only a minute after coming on at half-time. The cosmopolitan Sky Blue line-up which also included some names that fans will struggle to remember was as follows (subs in brackets & CCFPA members underlined):-
Raffaele Nuzzo (Morten Hyldgaard -46), Gary Breen, David Burrows (Steve Froggatt -46), Paul Williams (Richard Shaw -46), Barry Ferguson (Gavin Strachan -46), Barry Quinn (John Eustace -46), Paul Telfer, George Boateng (Youssef Chippo -46), Darren Huckerby (Gary McAllister -46 then Antonino Caruso -47), Trond-Egil Soltvedt (John Aloisi -46) and Steven McPhee (Noel Whelan -46)
After this win against FV Speyer* the Sky Blues played another three games in Germany every other day and ended up with four wins out of four! On the 14th they beat Karlsruhe by the odd goal in three followed up two days later with a substantial five clear goal victory of SC War-Oberstein. On the 18th June the tour culminated in a comprehensive 8-1 demolition over local side SC Weinsheim.
Back in England the pre-season preparations continued with a 3-1 defeat at Birmingham City‘s St Andrews, a single goal victory at Aberdeen, a 4-2 Highfield Road win over West Bromwich Albion (a testimonial for a star of both clubs (and CCFPA member) Cyrille Regis) and a single goal reverse at Hereford United.
WGS‘ Sky Blues ended up one of the Premiership’s best-performing sides at home during this season with a dozen Highfield Road victories but achieved not a single away win all season! Their dismal away record ruined their hopes of getting anywhere near the top five, and they ended up fourteenth place in the final table.
This season also marked the end of 43-year-old goalkeeping Legend Steve Ogrizovic‘s illustrious playing career at the club and severed their final remaining link with the 1987 FA Cup winning side. Robbie Keane proved a successful early season signing with twelve goals in 34 league appearances.
*NB in 2009 FV Speyer merged with local rival VfR Speyer to form FC Speyer 09.