Former Red Bull Suspended for Alleged Match Fixing

Remember Alfredo Pacheo? No? Well, he made 14 appearances for the Red Bulls during their disastrous 2009 campaign and now he's been suspended from "soccer related activities" for 30 days by the Salvadorian federation while it investigates match fixing allegations related to the 2013 Gold Cup.

We know there was someone offering teams cash at this summer's tournament, if the Belizian national team is to be believed, anyway, but apparently the Salvadorian team wasn't as committed to fair play as the Belizians were. Allegedly.

Pacheo, who now plays for Isidro Metapan in the Salvadorian first division, joins four other MLS-connected players in the dragnet.

Anyway, I've thrown around "allegedly" a few times because the match fixing rumors are just that, alleged, and Pacheo, et al. are still subject to an investigation. And I suppose it's worth noting, too, that El Salvador made it to the knockout stages, where they got beat 5-1 by the United States -- who ran through the tournament seemingly scoring at will -- in the quarterfinal. In the group stage, El Salvador went 1-1-1, drawing Trinidad and Tobago, losing to Honduras and beating Haiti with a goal differential of zero.

But hey, at least if he was throwing games in a Red Bulls shirt, it's not like it had much of an effect. The Red Bulls were so bad that year you would've hardly noticed.