Red Bulls' Osorio scouting in El Salvador
- by Ridge Mahoney @ridgemax, Feb 20, 2009
Ex-Red Bull defender Jeff Parke, claimed by Seattle in the expansion draft, is being shopped around MLS despite being out of contract, yet Osorio is looking in other areas for defensive help. He watched a league match between Salvadoran powers FAS and Luis Angel Firpo at the Quito Oscar Stadium in Santa Ana, and his target, according to local news reports, is FAS and El Salvador international left back Alfredo Pacheco, who was one of his country's better performers at the 2007 Gold Cup. El Salvador beat Trinidad & Tobago, 2-1, in its first game but then lost to Guatemala, 1-0, and the USA, 4-0, and failed to advance past the group stage.
Pacheco, 26, played four matches last month at the UNCAF tournament in Honduras as El Salvador earned one of five Central American places in the 2009 Gold Cup. He has played more than 200 games for FAS since joining the first team in 2001 and captained El Salvador several times last year as it qualified for the Concacaf Hexagonal, which it opened last week by rallying from a 2-0 deficit at home to tie Trinidad & Tobago, 2-2.
According to Salvadoran daily La Prensa Grafica, Osorio also observed Pacheco in Los Angeles, where El Salvador recently beat Peru, 1-0.
Osorio will rejoin the Red Bulls this weekend in Argentina, where they will be based in Pilar for training and matches until March 9. The schedule of games has yet to be finalized.
