Liverpool: German and Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamann has retired from international soccer after being left off Germany’s World Cup squad. He played 59 times for Germany and scored five goals. Hamann, 32, made his international debut against South Africa in 1997 and his last appearance was against The Netherlands in August 2005. He played for Germany at the 2002 World Cup.

“It’s not really a big surprise to me I wasn’t in the squad,” Hamann said. “I haven’t spoken to the manager for the last three months so I didn’t think there was much chance of me being included. That’s it for me now at international level.”

We lack team spirit : Zidane

Madrid: Zinedine Zidane says France need to recover the team spirit of previous years if they are to be successful at the World Cup finals in Germany. “We have good players but we lack the virtues of previous sides when we were a united group, all pulling in the same direction. It is coming little by little,” Zidane said in an interview on Friday.

Zidane was a central figure in the France team that won the World Cup on home turf in 1998 and the European Championships in 2000. But poor showings in the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea, and the European Championships in Portugal two years ago have left their mark on the midfielder.

“We could do something special but you have to remember we went out of the last two big tournaments without doing anything,” he added.

All 640 tickets sold

Berlin: All 640 tickets for blind soccer fans at World Cup matches have been sold, Germany’s organising committee has said. For the first time at a World Cup, 10 tickets for each of the 64 matches have been reserved for blind fans, who will each be allowed to take an escort into the stadiums for free.

There will also be two commentators accompanying the groups at each match. Headphones will be made available so that the fans can hear the commentary in one ear and the stadium sounds in the other. The organising committee said English commentators would be available for all England matches. Several Bundesliga teams have had groups of blind fans regularly in their stadiums, such as at Dortmund, Cologne and Hamburg, and said the practice had been successful, the organising committee said.

The equipment will be left in place at all 12 venues after the World Cup, which runs from June 9 to July 9.

Pig-less hamlet

Weggis (Switzerland): If Brazil’s soccer team succeed in winning a sixth World Cup title in July, the lack of pig smells in a small Swiss village might just have something to do with it.

The 4,000-inhabitant lakeside resort of Weggis is preparing to welcome Ronaldinho, Kaka and the rest of the Brazilian squad on Monday for the start of a two-week pre-World Cup training camp. Preparations in the village have included the building of a 5,000-seater practice stadium, an indoor training pitch, a gym, a media centre ? and the removal of around 300 pigs from a farm overlooking the stadium.

Angola land in Hanover

Hanover: Angola became the third World Cup finalists to arrive in Germany when they landed on Saturday in Hanover near their training base in Celle three weeks before the tournament begins. The squad was welcomed at the Hanover airport by Lower Saxony state interior minister Uwe Schuenemann and other local officials in cool and damp weather before they travelled to Celle.

Togo were the first of the 32 teams to arrive in Germany last Monday followed by Costa Rica on Wednesday.

(REUTERS, AP)