They don't sign teens in the youth academy to contracts (possibly because of the NCAA, which is a whole other issue), so when Klinsmann calls in a guy like Jordan Morriss twice in quick succession and puts him in front of European agents and tells him his USMNT future is brighter if Morriss talks to those guys, Seattle potentially gets nada if Morriss signs with them, because they don't have a contract with Morriss so Morriss can attend Stanford.

So yeah, it's not like Europe at all.