The New York Red Bulls II will face their rivals NYCFC II on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Belson Stadium in Queens. The Baby Bulls are coming off of a 2-2 (7-6) victory in a penalty shootout over Carolina Core FC while NYCFC II have lost their previous three matches.
Friday will be the second Hudson River Derby match of the season for the Red Bulls II (4-1-2) of MLS NEXT Pro against their hated rivals NYCFC II (2-5-2).
So far this season under the tutelage of manager Ibrahim Sekagya, the Baby Bulls are flying high and have won four of their first seven games of the 2025 MLS NEXT Pro season, which has them sitting second place in the Eastern Conference. The Baby Bulls have won two straight and are looking to make it three in a row on Friday.
The 12 goals that the Baby Bulls have conceded this season ranks eighth-fewest in MLS NEXT Pro. Conversely, the 23 goals that NYCFC II have conceded this season are the most in the entire league by three goals– the next closest team is Sporting Kansas City II who have surrendered 20. Last season, the Red Bulls II ranked in the bottom half of the league in goals against.
One of the reasons for this improvement year over year is the coaching staff which veteran Baby Bulls midfielder Steven Sserwadda elaborated on during a recent press conference.
We have a good coaching staff that has so far developed players in the back, in the defensive areas. We know what we have to do. And individually, we watch a lot of videos and how we can play and how we can improve, and we’ll do a lot of defensive work during trainings for the guys who need to improve as well. They are listening, and they are understanding the system.
New Faces
The Baby Bulls head into every season with new faces. It’s just the nature of the beast as they are the bridge between the first team and the Red Bulls Academy which has produced the likes of Julian Hall and Serge Ngoma. Two new faces that have featured for the Baby Bulls in their last two matches are German defender Brooklyn Schwarz and Argentine midfielder Neheun Benedetti. Schwarz appeared for 59 minutes against NYCFC II on March 30.
The 19-year-old German has really come into his own lately. He made two appearances as a substitute in his team’s first five games of he season but since then has started and played 90 minutes in each of his team’s last two games. Meanwhile, Benedetti, a 20-year-old scored his first MLS NEXT Pro goal on April 27 against Orlando City B and has also started the last two games.
Nehuen Groovin' 🕺
Nehuen Benedetti scores first career MLS Next Pro goal https://t.co/RpRIBdeq0M pic.twitter.com/m7YWH98uv9
— New York Red Bulls II (@NYRBII) April 28, 2025
Coach Sekagya described what he’s seen from each of these players recently that has led to them logging more minutes for the second team.
Benedetti, we knew it, these are the new guys. Benedetti we knew his fitness—he has to understand the way we play and now he’s peaking. Now he has a chance and he’s showing how good he is. But there is still a long way to learn what we are trying to teach him but we know how good he is. He will develop well and this is the player who has been helping us with the two games he’s started you can see. And with Brooklyn Schwarz also it was the same thing. I think the most important thing is the training we give them and the way we start them slow. Their fitness is getting better and now it shows into the games when they start playing.
The third young player who has emerged as an impact player recently is 17-year-old, academy product Dennis Nelich. Nelich scored his first professional goal in the Baby Bulls previous game against Carolina scoring in the 75th minute.
Nelich, Schwarz and Benedetti are just three of the reasons the Red Bulls II are flying high. The other is veteran second team standout Ibrahim Kasule. The 21-year-old leads the team with five goal contributions (goals and assists together) and leads the active squad with three career goal contributions against NYCFC II.
History Between NYCFC II and Red Bulls II
Historically, the Hudson River Derby has been pretty even at the MLS NEXT Pro level. In the competition, the Baby Bulls and Baby Blues have met seven times and each team has won three times with one draw. The last meeting between these two clubs was on March 30 at Sports Illustrated Stadium where the Baby Bulls emerged victorious on Julian Hall’s penalty kick.
NYCFC II’s leaders when it comes to goal contributions this season are Maximo Carrizo, Seymour Reid and Julien Lacher; Carrizo has 5 (2 goals and 3 assists), Reid has 4 (4 goals) and Lacher has 4 (2 goals, 2 assists).
These are the players whom the Baby Bulls will need to keep their eyes on when these two hit the field at Belson stadium in the Big Apple on Friday and Coach Sekagya touched on his gameplan.
We know they have good players, they have good strikers, but we have to do our job as a backline. Whoever they’re going to play we have to be ready, but the most important thing is not to give them space. Those are the players when you give them space, they can punish you. The battle is going to be about this and we have to stick to our plan.
On the matchup, Sserwadda offered this brief but effective summation.
The game demands a lot. [NYCFC II are] a good team. Everyone is ready, the guys are ready and know the challenge.
Head to the MLS Season Pass on Apple TV to see who emerges victorious in the second 2025 installment of the MLS NEXT Pro Hudson River Derby. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m.
