They signed Petit and several other veteran players who still had plenty to offer.
This allowed Cologne to successfully secure promotion to the Bundesliga.
This summer, Cologne's biggest deal was signing the Prince of Cologne, Podolski, from Bayern Munich for 10 million euros.
At the same time, they also signed Maniche from Atletico Madrid on a free transfer.
Sordo was known for his defensive tactics.
As a newly promoted team making their league debut away at Dortmund, Cologne's tactical setup was extremely cautious.
Sordo deployed a 4-5-1 formation.
He even deployed a trio of defensive midfielders—Petit, Maniche, and Pezzoni—making it clear that they intended to defend resolutely to the very end.
However, Cologne's two center-backs were still old rivals Wang Shuo had faced in the 2nd Bundesliga: Mackenna and Muhammad.
They had faced each other in the Second Bundesliga before, but times had changed.
Now, Wang Shuo was the Bundesliga's renowned "twenty-million-euro man."
