Union takeaways: It’s fine that a dog on the field was the highlight of a scoreless tie

Here’s our morning-after look back at the Union’s scoreless tie with Alianza in the Concacaf Champions League on Tuesday night in El Salvador.

Jesús Bueno. All three of the players the Union signed in the offseason started this game and played well. Damion Lowe was steady at centerback, Andrés Perea played well in both directions, and Joaquín Torres created some of the team’s best scoring chances. But Bueno gets the honor here because this was his first start for the Union’s first team after just nine brief appearances in two years as a reserve.

Concacaf’s Champions League lacks the global prestige of its counterparts, especially Europe’s Champions League and South America’s Copa Libertadores. But this continent’s top club tournament doesn’t lack for theatrics, especially when teams from MLS or Mexico go on the road in Central America.

So this was a reasonably big moment for Bueno, and the 23-year-old Venezuelan met the moment. Starting in place of his countryman José Andrés Martínez, Bueno played 63 minutes and recorded 43 touches, 23-of-29 passing, two tackles, six interceptions, seven defensive recoveries, and three fouls for good measure. Eight of his passes went into the opponent’s final third, replicating one of Martínez’s most important skills.

Union manager Jim Curtin said after the game that he’d have let Bueno play the full contest if not for a 41st-minute yellow card.

» READ MORE: Union’s backups earn scoreless tie at El Salvador’s Alianza in Champions League opener

146. That’s the number of passes the Union completed in Alianza’s half of the field. Though there were no goals, the Union spent plenty of time in attacking mode. That confidence should carry over to the home game of the series next Tuesday at Subaru Park (8 p.m., Fox Soccer Plus).

25. That’s the number of interceptions by the Union in the game.

“We changed eight players from Miami, which is not in my nature. I’ve told you guys before, when you rotate more than four, you’re really putting your group at risk. But I have to say, we believe in our depth, for sure. We have as strong a team as we’ve ever had in terms of guys that can come in off the bench and change the game for us.”

— Curtin on fulfilling his promise to rotate his starting lineup for this game, with the Union in the midst of one of many busy stretches they face this season.

“The dog being on the field is a very Concacaf thing, you know? This happens. It was funny. I hope the dog is OK. It seemed like a nice dog.”

— Curtin on the dog that ran on to the field during the second half and bit the ball, briefly stopping play.

» READ MORE: The Union are in a stretch of five games in 15 days

Violette AC 3, Austin FC 0. We’ll normally skip this part for Champions League games, since rounds of matches are spread out over multiple days. But this one has to be mentioned, because it’s quite an upset. It’s the first time since July 2010 that a Caribbean team beat a MLS team in the tournament, and the first win for a team from Haiti in the tournament’s modern era.

Interestingly, it’s not the first time Violette has earned headlines in continental competition. The club was awarded the 1984 Concacaf Champions Cup title after it reached the final but the series was never played. The other semifinalists, the amateur New York Pancyprian-Freedoms and Mexico’s Chivas, failed to agree on dates for their matchup. So they were both disqualified and Violette was crowned the winner.

The Union host the Chicago Fire on Saturday at Subaru Park (7:30 p.m., Apple TV). It’s the team’s first game behind the MLS Season Pass paywall. After that, Alianza comes to Subaru Park next Tuesday. There’s still no word on whether there will be a better broadcast outlet for that game than Fox Soccer Plus, an old cable channel that Comcast doesn’t carry in the Philadelphia region.

» READ MORE: How to watch Union games in the new Apple MLS Season Pass streaming package