Fifty years from now, if anyone goes back and investigates previous holders of the Federal Cross Merit, they might be surprised to find the name Jürgen Klinsmann, who was given that honor at a private ceremony in Berlin on Wednesday.

Germany's third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup might have felt like a "summer fairy tale" to ebullient supporters at the country's many fan miles, but from a historical perspective that result seems little more than acceptable for a host nation with a grand soccer tradition.

Klinsmann deserves praise for restoring confidence to a team that looked pretty shambolic in the run-up to soccer's premier event -- thus helping Germany avoid a major embarrassment. But Wednesday's award caps a frenzy of self-congratulation that has often obscured the inconvenient fact that the 2006 trophy was in fact hoisted by rival Italy.

Vogts and Völler achieved more

The question might be raised whether soccer coaches should at all be awarded a distinction that at higher levels usually is given to heads of state and Nobel Prize winners. But even if one grants that they should, Klinsmann's nomination seems a bit out of proportion.

In fact, Klinsi's record stacks up unfavorably against that of his much criticized predecessor, Rüdi Völler. Völler, who also received the Cross, took Germany to a second-place finish at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan -- without the benefit of playing in front of home crowds.

The fact that soccer minnows South Korea came in fourth at that tournament attests to the tremendous advantage that comes from hosting the event and relativizes the importance of Germany's third-place showing last year.

Indeed, former national coach Berti Vogts -- who was reviled in his day as boring and out-of-date -- has more major coaching titles to his credit than either Klinsmann or Völler, having won the 1996 European Championship. That was Germany's last international title.

More a successful caretaker than a soccer visionary

Klinsmann deserved praise for guiding Germany through a difficult period. But he has often been falsely credited with revolutionizing the German game, replacing the previous strategy of ball control with a radical, new attacking style of play.

Firstly, Klinsmann delegated much of the tactical preparations to his assistant Joachim Löw, Germany's current national coach. Secondly, two of Germany's best results -- a last-second victory over Poland in the group stage and a penalty shoot-out triumph over Argentina -- were classic hang-in-there-and-hope-something-good-happens wins.

Significantly, Italy ended the hosts' title drive in the semi-finals by playing the way German teams of old did, controlling the midfield and gradually wearing down their opponents. Portugal, on the other hand, basically let the hosts have their day when the two teams met in the match for third place. After all, who wanted to play the role of party-pooper just to become the second-best of the rest?

Lastly, and lest it be forgotten, Klinsmann turned down the opportunity to continue his work. A few days after the end of the tournament, perhaps sensing it was going to be difficult to live up to the hype, the man who purportedly set out to modernize German soccer, hung up his clipboard and went home to California.

The future is brighter than the past

No one involved with the German national team, and certainly not Klinsmann, has any reason to be ashamed of the World Cup. The tournament was enormous fun for all, and Germany played attractive, sportsmanlike soccer.

But nor is there any need to pretend that Germany's achievement on the pitch was the work of a miraculous SoCal savior. Germany fielded a relatively flawed squad that outdid low expectations on its home turf. Let's leave it at that.

With many of the Bundesliga's clubs developing young talent after being forced to save money, Germany should present a much stronger team at the 2008 European Championships than they did at the 2006 World Cup. Next year in Austria and Switzerland, Germany could be celebrating a triumph than holds up better in the record books than the over-hyped "summer fairy tale" under Klinsmann.

Jefferson Chase works as a journalist at DW-WORLD.DE and DW-TV and reports on German and international soccer.