That is the thing. This model (long amateurism and travel teams) which can function well for other sports, doesn't work as well for producing high-quality soccer players. There seems to be a critical period for skill development (somewhere around the pre-teen to early teen years) where a player really needs intensive instruction, and American players don't get that.
While an American kid is playing for his high school and traveling in the summer with his team (competing against other kids of that precise age), his European counterparts are in the youth section of professional clubs, and when they're good enough, move up to the senior team.
Football is a hell of a lot more complicated than soccer and it works fine. The problem is any kid who is a real athlete with a head on his shoulders in the US will play the big 3, they pay a LOT more than soccer. Basically MLS gets the dregs of US athletes for the most part.
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