It was obvious - and still is - which players on this team "get it" and which ones don't, and it all comes down to off-the-ball movement.
In the last game, Maicon Santos had a Neymar-like moment where he stopped the ball and began flicking his left foot around. Typical Brazilian trickery, no doubt, but while everyone was gawking at Maicon, the problem became Borman and Sturgis, the two players immediately surrounding him. Both stood in place. Neither supported him. Neither player thought to themselves "What is the bigger picture at this exact moment?" and instead stood firmly in place, instead of moving into an open position for Maicon to send the ball off to.
Linear thinking from MLS players has made the long-ball game easy, no doubt. When it's boot and shoot, there's not a lot of thinking involved, and yes, some teams do find success in this style of play. We've been unlucky to have not. However, the fundamentals of Winter's "system" is more logical than athletic.
Players must always think two moves ahead. When you're in a 4-3-3, so much of the play depends on the players around you. There's such a small amount of movement in midfield that not being properly positioned is brutal to the holding players. The space between the fullback and the winger is often blocked by the left or right midfielder used by most MLS teams in the standard 4-4-2. This is where Brek Shea completely dominated.
Players must be thinking on a more expansive level. The whole field must be their vision. Without the right movement into space, this system won't work. Imagine if Xavi and Iniesta stood around waiting instead of passing. Imagine if Dani Alves and Abidal never burst forward to receive the midfield pass again from Busquets. The ONLY player who is thinking this way thus far is Torsten Frings, a player who FINALLY slotted into the right position to allow the centerbacks to pass to the middle. Hopefully, with some time, he will not be alone.