Seattle coach Schmid explains Argentina camp

Seattle Sounders Head Coach Sigi Schmid has explained exactly why he chose Argentina for his team's preseason training.

He said: "The emphasis is two-fold. One is on our collective defending because the Argentine teams are good at keeping possession. Defensively you have to be really good about keeping your shape and really good about your patience and really good about staying mentally focused because during their time of possession you can't get exposed; you can't get drawn apart.

"The second aspect is, because they hold on to the ball, you want to hold on to the ball when you get it. Otherwise you will feel like you played 75 percent of the game chasing the ball around. This will help our possession orientation because it makes you value your own possession.

"You realize if you don't keep the ball, you're going to be chasing it around for a long time. When you give it away, it will be a long time until you get it back. It works on both aspects of our game, but it's important for us psychologically, defensively and possession-wise. That's what we're going to get out of these games."