The Union return to the Concacaf Champions League with some extra motivation

In soccer, the rewards for success aren’t just trophies and cash. Reaching a continent’s club championship is a big prize too, no matter which continent.

So here are the Union, set to embark on the second Concacaf Champions League campaign in team history on Tuesday night at El Salvador’s Alianza (8 p.m., FS1, TUDN).

The teams will meet again in Chester next Tuesday for the back end of their round-of-16 series, with the team that scores the most goals over the two games advancing. If the score is tied after 180 minutes, the side with the most road goals scored advances. If that’s level, the teams go to penalty kicks.

As was the case two years ago, when the Union reached the CCL semifinals in their first run in the tournament, the team is motivated to put itself on the world stage. But there might be a little extra motivation for this game, because of how poorly the Union played in Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Inter Miami.

“That’s what’s great about having so many games right? You’re able to move on to the next one,” Union midfielder and captain Alejandro Bedoya said Monday in a news conference at the venerable Estadio Cuscatlán, El Salvador’s national stadium in San Salvador, where Tuesday’s game will be played.

“Flush that one, move on — tomorrow night’s a new game, a new competition, and move forward,” Bedoya said. “It’s important tomorrow that we stick to our principles, play our game, play our style, and obviously play better. But it’ll come. It’s still early in the season, no reason to panic.”

» READ MORE: Union suffer first loss of season, 2-0 at Inter Miami

While Alianza may lack familiar names for casual fans, it doesn’t lack for international savvy. Many of the team’s players are current or past El Salvador national team regulars.

Anyone who watched La Selecta’s games against the U.S. in World Cup qualifying for Qatar, or last summer’s Concacaf Nations League game in San Salvador, watched goalkeeper Mario González, outside back Alexander Larín, midfielder Narciso Orellana, and forward Rodolfo “Fito” Zelaya.

“They have a lot of guys with experience on the international level in these types of games — that is the one thing as a coach that I’m concerned with,” Union manager Jim Curtin said. “We have some young players that this might be their first Champions League game, in a big moment. So hopefully we can raise our level and get the job done in the first leg.”

Curtin also took some questions about the poor state of the field at the Cuscatlán, and not because he’s an Eagles fan. The stadium didn’t host any events following a concert on Dec. 18 until an Alianza game in El Salvador’s domestic league last Wednesday. Despite the 108 days for repair and remediation of the field, there was a possibility a few weeks back that the game would be moved elsewhere.

Enough repair work has been completed that Concacaf is satisfied, but Alianza manager Eduardo Lara is not.

“The state of the stadium is unfortunate,” he told reporters after last week’s contest. “On the field you can’t handle the ball, and our philosophy is to have the ball on the ground, but in these circumstances it becomes difficult. … The conditions of the field were not suitable for our game.”

» READ MORE: Union Takeaways: Loss to Inter Miami leaves Jim Curtin’s team ‘a little bit humbled’

Curtin played the matter off, having dealt with the continent’s eccentricities previously as a player and a coach.

“The playing surface isn’t in the best condition, but we just went through a training today and our guys were fine with it and did OK with it,” he said. “It’s the same for both teams, so we can’t use that as an excuse. … Does Alianza wish, and do I wish, that it was in a little better condition so you can see better football? Of course that would be nice, that would be ideal. But we have to play with the conditions that we’re in.”

Because the CCL has a separate TV deal from MLS, the Union will be back on traditional TV for their games in the tournament. But watching them still won’t be straightforward.

While Tuesday’s game will be easy to find on FS1 and TUDN, the Union’s home game against Alianza next Tuesday will be an issue. It’s also set for 8 p.m., and Austin FC will be playing its first ever Champions League home game at the same hour, against Haiti’s Violette AC. FS1 is booked that night with a World Baseball Classic doubleheader, so Fox is putting Austin on FS2 and bumping the Union to Fox Soccer Plus — an old, out-of-the-way channel that Comcast’s Philly-area cable service doesn’t carry. Most TV providers that do offer the channel put it on a premium tier.

It remains to be seen if Fox will offer an easier online streaming option, but it seems unlikely.

Nor does it seem that finding the game in Spanish will be easy. TUDN, owned by Univision, is also taking the Austin game for its 8 p.m. TV slot and hasn’t yet said where it will put the Union game.

Every other game of the round of 16 will be available on TUDN, and all but one — Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Honduras’ Real España on Tuesday at 10 p.m. — will be on FS1 or FS2.

Union fans might want to check out the series between Honduras’ Olimpia and Mexico’s Atlas, Wednesday at 8 p.m. (FS2, TUDN) and next Tuesday at 10 p.m. (FS2, TUDN), because the Union would face the winner next.

» READ MORE: The easy part of the Union’s schedule is already over