The New York Red Bulls II (17-6-5) are going to host the MLS NEXT Pro Final on Saturday under the bright lights of Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison. It will be the club’s second finals appearance. In 2016, the Baby Bulls won the United Soccer League (USL) Cup final 5-1 against Swope Park Rangers at then Red Bull Arena, but this will be their first in MLS NEXT Pro which they have been a part of for three seasons.
Current Premier League midfielder Tyler Adams was one of the team’s star players then and former New York/ New Jersey Metrostars and New York Red Bulls striker, John Wolyniec was the head coach. Now, the team is led by its current head coach, former USMNT legend and New Jersey native, Michael Bradley, who took over the Baby Bulls in June from now New York Red Bulls assistant coach Ibrahim Sekagya.
Their opponent in the final will be the Colorado Rapids 2 (15-8-5) who advanced to the final after defeating Minnesota United FC 2 by the score of 2-1 at their home field. The Rapids 2 will be getting on their rafts and traveling 1,782 miles from Commerce City, Colorado to Harrison, New Jersey to face the Baby Bulls, who advanced to the final after narrowly defeating the Philadelphia Union II 2-1 at Sports Illustrated Stadium on November 1. Those two goals came from Red Bulls Academy product and Montclair, New Jersey native Roald Mitchell.
Sports Illustrated Stadium is normally the home of the New York Red Bulls of MLS, but since they are not in the playoffs this year, the first team was happy to lend it to their MLS NEXT Pro affiliate.
Bradley grew up in New Jersey attending Metrostars games at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. He knows the sports culture in New Jersey and he described the value of being able to play the MLS NEXT Pro final at the home of his club’s MLS affiliate.
For me it’s one of the absolute best stadiums in the country. A bunch of us were talking this week. I mean, obviously we had a great crowd against Philadelphia. It was by no means full, or necessarily close to full, but the few thousand people that came into the stadium. When we scored the noise and the atmosphere was incredible. And everybody, the players, everybody inside the club, felt that. And so again, for me, it’s especially growing up in New Jersey. I can remember going to watch MetroStars games in that first year or two at the old Giants Stadium. And now to you know whether it was with the national team, whether it was with any of the club teams that I played for now coaching. To be able to play a part in Sports Illustrated Stadium. That part is special.
Sixteen of the 33 players who have been on the Red Bulls II roster in 2025 are under the age of 19. They are getting ready to play the biggest game of their lives and some of them like captain Adri Mehmeti are barely old enough to hold a driver’s license.
One of the youngest Baby Bulls is 17-year-old left-back Matthew Dos Santos. Dos Santos shed some light on how he and his teammates are preparing for the final.
I’d say it’s pretty much the same preparation we have for every game. It’s just knowing that the game is going to get a little bit bigger, obviously, because it’s a final, and everybody’s going out there to compete, and it’s just doing your job and playing with confidence, and again, playing our football, our style of play, because that’s the most important part.
Part of the reason the Baby Bulls have had so much success in 2025 has been their prodigious midfield trio of Mehmeti, Nate Worth and Nehuen Benedetti. All three players, while they don’t always end up on the scoresheet, have contributed mightily to the team’s success in 2025. Benedetti led the Red Bulls II with 11 goals during the regular season and so far these playoffs has contributed two goals and one assist. Mehmeti came up big in the conference final with two assists while Worth has one assist during these playoffs.
Worth described what’s gone into their chemistry this season.
I just made the jump into the starting lineup (two months ago) and we’ve been getting a good run of games together. And I think what makes it really special for our trio in the middle is, we all understand each other, but we’re all very different players at the same time. I think we all bring a different side of the game. We have a good understanding of how to work with each other and use the best of each other in each game. I think our connection has been really good. Adri (Mehmeti) being a little deeper, controlling the tempo, when to go forward back, and then having me and Nevi (Benedetti) being a little more dynamic and trying to threaten in the box. I think it’s been really good.
Benedetti added his thoughts on the team chemistry that’s led Red Bulls II to its first final in nine years.
We have it not only in the midfield but throughout the whole team as well. It’s a bit like what the coach works on during the week, putting intensity into every play we make, moving the ball quickly when he says we should be fluid, coordinating our movements. That’s what we try to do game by game: to stay connected. Luckily, it’s been working out well for us. We’re moving well, and that impacts the team because we’re flowing together.
The Baby Bulls have great chemistry but so do their opponents, the Rapids 2. The Rapids 2 finished in eighth place in the overall MLS NEXT Pro standings and third in the Western Conference. Colorado had eight players finish the regular season with four or more goals and Billo Diop led the group with 14 goals, the fifth-most in the league this season. In three playoff games, Diop has one goal which was the first goal in the Western Conference semi against Town FC.
The Baby Bulls’ regular season leader in goals was Nehuen Benedetti (11) but during the playoffs Roald Mitchell has shone the brightest, scoring four goals to lead the club. The home side will be a tall order for the Colorado backline to defend as they have a 13-1-3 record at home this season and have scored the most goals of any club in the MLS NEXT Pro playoffs (12) this year. That tally ranks second in the three-year history of the league behind North Texas SC who scored 13 last year.
Bradley described what Colorado does well and how his team’s style of soccer matches up with the Western Conference champions.
They know what they are, and they know the type of game they want, and they know the things that they’re good at, and so there’s no doubt that in certain moments they’re going to win balls and look to run and look to go fast in transition. It’s not a team that necessarily cares about having the ball for long amounts of time, but it’s a team that is athletic and physical, the team that has speed, and it’s a team again, that in terms of against the ball, chasing and really trying to go, come after you and then win it. So we have big respect for them. They’ve had a really good season. And so we’ve spent good time this week as a staff and with the players as well, making sure that everybody understands what kind of game we’re going to get.
Michael Bradley brings to this final the experience of playing in the 2017 MLS Cup final which he won as a member of Toronto FC. The 38-year-old coach offered his advice to his players ahead of Saturday’s final at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
The biggest message is that we all do this, whether it’s the players playing or us coaching. You do this to have the big moments, to play in big games, to compete, when the lights come on brightest, and so the opportunity to play in a final in a great stadium with a lot of people there. That’s why you play. That is the best thing that there is. And so sure, the part of some excitement, or some nerves, some butterflies, whatever it is. Yeah, it’s normal, but that’s how it’s supposed to be. If you didn’t feel that, then there’d be something wrong. And so we were going to encourage it, just like we have every single game, encourage the players to step on the field and go for it, to be fearless, to play our football, to try to, from the first second, be the team on top of every play.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the English broadcast can be viewed with MLS Season Pass on Apple TV while the Spanish broadcast can be viewed on mlsnextpro.com.
