KISSIMMEE, Fla. - There's something a little different about watching Martín Perelman run a training session.
For most of the session, he will pace the touchline or step into drills, but the Lions' interim head coach this season has taken to positioning himself on an elevated platform, high enough to see everything happening on the pitch.
"I am afraid of heights," Perelman admitted with a laugh following training at Orlando Health Training Ground at Osceola Heritage Park. "But for some reason, after a while, I got used to it, and I'm not afraid anymore. So I started using it more to conquer my fear."
Back in 2008, when he was starting out as a coach at Banfield in Argentina, his job was to climb a tower twice as tall as Orlando City's stand in order to film practices. After getting used to the sway of the tower and his nervousness being so high up, he learned that seeing the pitch from that vantage point can help him understand his team better.
"When we go into more of a tactical task or drill, I like to go high and coach from there, because I have a better perspective, and I can be more effective with my interventions," he said. "The important thing is to earn time. If I can have clearness, better perspective from up there, I can be more effective, and I can earn time for my players on the field."
It's that same big-picture thinking Perelman is applying as the Lions turn their attention to Nashville SC on Saturday, coming off a confidence-boosting win over CF Montréal last weekend.
"The team, I think, will raise the confidence," Perelman said. "Of course, with confidence, it's always about being balanced, not over, not low, because low balance is related to low performance. So if we want to perform high, we need to keep the confidence at the balance level."
Nashville will be yet another big test on the young season for the Lions. The Coyotes made significant additions in the offseason and have looked sharp through the early weeks of the season.
"Nashville did a really good job with this coach. It's a team that we respect a lot," Perelman said. "They have a clear game model and you can see the work, the job there. My respect for that. Again, we have our tools. We have our team, our players, our prestige. Our club is huge, and we will make it in the same way, anywhere and against any team."
One player who has embodied that kind of versatility is winger Iván Angulo, who has been directly involved in almost all of Orlando City's goals so far this season, getting assists on three of the team's five goals. A prime example of a player that does the dirty work for the team that is now getting rewarded with results.
"If we talk about pragmatism and versatility, he's a great example," Perelman said. "The quality he has, the way he pushes for the team, it's a great example of what an Orlando City player should be. We're happy he's performing, and he has consistency. Hopefully, he can continue like that, or even better."
Coming off a hectic week last week, with the departure of Head Coach Oscar Pareja 72 hours prior to the match versus Montréal, Perelman and the Lions will have a full week of focus and preparation heading into Saturday. Despite that, the preparation for Nashville, at its core, won't change too much.
"The pragmatism and the versatility, I think, is required always in this game," he said. "Coaches, coaching staff and teams, we have our ideas, our principles, our methodologies, our plans. But at the end of the day, this game is beautiful because of this. You need to respect the game. You need to have the capacity to adapt to each game, each context, each moment. We are trying to build a team that has clear ideas to represent our philosophy. At the end of the day, we are here, and we want to win."
Orlando City kicks off at GEODIS Park on Saturday at 6:15 p.m. ET. on Apple TV and FS1.
Odds and Ends:
- Forward Tiago was back out at training after missing out on last match due to injury.
