Written By Devyn Levin and Tyler Jacobson
A key component of any winning team?
Good chemistry.
The key to building team chemistry?
Time.
For the USA teams at the 2024 European Youth Maccabi Games (EMYG), time is something they don’t have.
Most of the players met their teammates Sunday en route to London. They practiced for the first time on Monday and will play their opening game Wednesday.
Teams after arriving in London did not waste their limited time. Players quickly settled in Monday and regrouped for practice, using different techniques to handle the quick transition and gel.
U18 Girls’ Soccer
The U18 Girls’ Soccer team worked in small groups to create more personal connections between the players.
“As we’re warming up, we call out each other’s name and if we don’t remember we ask,” said
Madelyn Aizenberg, a 15-year-old soccer player from Sacramento, California.
Some players connected before meeting face-to-face; social media played a large role in building chemistry before the start of the games.
“Some of us have followed each other’s socials,” Aizenberg said. “We do have a WhatsApp group chat together.”
U18 Boys’ Futsal
During the trip to London, the U18 Boys’ Futsal team turned to humor to get closer.
“Before getting on the plane, and on the plane, we were cracking jokes with each other and telling stories,” said Sawyer Weiss, who plays the pivot.
At practice, the futsal team first worked on formations and participated in drills to sharpen technical skills.
“We scrimmaged at the end of practice to implement all the tactical work we worked on,” Weiss said.
U16 Boys’ Basketball
What can we expect from the USA’s U16 boys’ basketball team at the 2024 EMYG?
“We definitely shoot. We’re really good,” Garrett Schwartz said. “We have good size, good defense, good everything. I don’t think we really have a big flaw.”
The team worked on offensive and defensive sets, the press, and, of course, built chemistry by, Itzhak Rachmuth said, making sure “we’re all on the same page.”
Practice finished with a scrimmage against the U18 team.
“[We wanted to just] work through our sets and know what we have to do and when to do it. [The scrimmage] was good because they’re bigger defenders and stuff,” said Schwartz, who has high expectations this week.
“Winning basketball,” he said. “We’re gonna come out, compete and win.”
But winning gold isn’t the only goal.
“Obviously, number one winning gold. That’s awesome,” Rachmuth said. ”But also I want to make Jewish friends that I don’t have an opportunity to make where I live that play the same sport as me at this level.”
Tyler Jacobson lives outside Philadelphia and is currently a senior at the University of Delaware studying Communications and Media Production. You can follow his work @Tylersj26 on Instagram and here at maccabiusa.com.
Devyn Levin is from Cherry Hill, NJ, and is a rising junior at The Ohio State University. You can follow her work at @devynlevin on Instagram and at maccabiusa.com.