He could have fooled his audience. Apart from the promising opening against Holland, Germany were utterly pedestrian and one-dimensional in their final two matches and the land that gave us Gerd Muller fielded five strikers who looked as if they couldn't hit a barn door from five yards.
Yet German football has never been in more need of optimism and Voller still fits that bill. He knew he would probably get hammered in the post-Portugal inquest but "in principle" reckoned he would like to continue in the job.
The initial signs from the German Football Federation were that he might get his wish.
"I think the friendlies over the next two years can be used to experiment, there are several very good young players. I'm not hearing alarm bells," said president Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder.
Anyway, would there be many other takers for the job of leading the home challenge in a World Cup where the chances of opening-round humiliation seem pretty high? I never thought we would hear a German coach utter the words "we just can't match the big footballing nations".
Whether anyone can match the Czech Republic here will be intriguing to see.
Goals from Marek Heinz and Liverpool's Milan Baros overturned a wonderful strike from Ballack to enable Karel Bruckner's team to become the only one in the competition to qualify with three wins.
Did this make the Czechs one of the favourites? "I don't think so," said Bruckner but he was fooling no one.
Pavel Nedved and Co will be back to take on Denmark in the quarter-final in Porto on Sunday and the force still seems to be with them.
Yet perhaps the secret weapon is their wonderfully laconic coach. Did you have a relaxed night with qualification already in the bag, he was asked.
"Generally, I don't use football matches as a relaxation," he responded. "I prefer my weekend house for that."
