Christian Pulisic, right, with Jadon Sancho, played only his second game for the United States in the past year. Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
LONDON — For another week or so, at least, the players on the United States men’s national team can enjoy the relative innocence of their youth.
Their mistakes these days are mostly forgiven, their naïveté largely dismissed.
This is the freedom of a team that has torn everything down, as the Americans did after stunningly failing to qualify for the World Cup last fall.
Unencumbered by any weight of expectation, unburdened by anything so pesky as a track record, the United States has pushed through a year of experimentation with a temporary coaching staff that has given opportunities to dozens of promising, young players, the equivalent of dumping a box of puzzle pieces onto a table to see which ones fit together best.