team, Paris Saint-Germain buried Inter Miami by the break, scoring in the sixth minute and erupting for three more goals within a six-minute span.

Like the U.S. basketball greats who rolled through the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the French footballers toyed with their opponent Sunday and elicited “oohs” and “ahhs” from the crowd.

So what did we learn from MLS participation in a much-expanded, stateside-only Club World Cup that saw only Inter Miami — which went 1-1-2 — advance out of group stage and quick exits for Seattle (0-3-0) and LAFC (0-2-1)?

Foremost, we learned something we already knew: it’s unfair to expect any MLS team to consistently match the football quality of Europe’s better clubs, of which there are many, much less the standard-bearers in Brazil and Argentina.

Not now. Not ever.

And that’s fine.

MLS still can carve out a fruitful place on the global scene. Plus, the MLS-record 10 matches in the Club World Cup — an event that’s not a great competition, given that many of the world’s leagues are coming off a long season — will provide useful data and feedback.

This, too: though praising FIFA for anything requires pinching one’s nose, the poohbahs were right to finagle Inter Miami into the tournament. Messi and Co. beat one of Portugal’s top teams 2-1. Three of their matches attracted more than 60,000 fans, including Sunday’s crowd of 65,578.

MLS must make sure its economic model continues to allow for spendy approaches like Miami’s.

But the wrong conclusion would be for MLS to decide that jacking up its players’ salaries will result in much better soccer. MLS should look to increase players’ pay, but European leagues and the Saudi League will still live in a different financial stratosphere.

“It’s so difficult to say exactly where the league stands,” said Tyler Heaps, the general manager of San Diego FC, on Sunday, “but I don’t think that spending more money, for example, in Miami, is going to make them compete with the best team in the world.

“And,” Heaps added, “I also don’t think MLS should be trying to compete with a PSG. Because it’s in the most population-dense (region) of talent in the world, it’s arguably one of the best academies in the world and they have endless amounts of money due to their sponsorship and (Qatari) ownership, where I don’t think any MLS team is going to be able to come close to being able to spend where they do.”

Heaps’ thoughts on how MLS can improve should be heard by MLS HQ. Undburdened by bad contracts, SDFC leads the 30-team league in both goals scored and assists through 20 matches. SDFC (12-5-3) stands atop the 15-team Western Conference.

“If you look at the Premier League, it’s probably the most watchable league in the world,” Heaps said. “And it’s because some teams spend a lot of money, but there also are a lot of teams that are very clever. You look at the Brightons, at the Brentfords, at even Bournemouth, these clubs are all competing week in, week out with these other teams. And they’re doing it on a much lower budget because they have a clear idea and strategy.

“That’s what MLS lacks,” added Heaps. “There are too many clubs that aren’t really sure what they’re trying to do, year in and year out, or they’re constantly changing. And that’s hurting the watchability of the league but also the ability to compete at a higher level.”

Ideally, the folks who invest in an MLS club are “really committed to investing in people,” said Heaps, who at 34 is the league’s youngest sporting director and has 10-plus years of football experiences abroad. “Then, it’s hiring experts that also are aligned with the ownership. That’s where I was really fortunate to come into this project, is that I am extremely aligned with the (family of team chairman Sir Mohamed Mansour, a British-Egyptian billionaire businessman) and the Right to Dream (global set of developmental academies). I see football the same way they do. That’s a really fortunate thing because I don’t think every sporting director has that.”