India, Oct. 5 -- For a national football team, time is usually the enemy. Players arrive from different clubs, different systems and different philosophies, train for a handful of days and are then expected to function as a cohesive unit. India have often found that the equation changes when the clock is allowed to run a little longer.

Akash Mishra certainly believes it does. "The more we get together in the camp, the more days we get, I think it will be good for us," the India defender said ahead of Tuesday's friendly against Uruguay at the Salt Lake stadium. "We will have to prepare according to our tactics and how we want to play. So, the bigger the camp, the better for the national team."

There is temptation to dismiss that as the p...