Fresh off a 5-2 loss in the second Hudson River Derby of the 2025 MLS NEXT Pro season, the New York Red Bulls II (4-2-2, 15 points) will look to rebound at MSU Soccer Park Sunday where they have gone 2-0 so far this season.
The Baby Bulls are 2-0 all-time against their opponent New England Revolution II (3-1-3) at home, having outscored them 7-2.
Despite being thoroughly outscored last Friday against their rivals, NYCFC II, the Baby Bulls find themselves in a three-way tie for third place in the MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference. Also, the Baby Bulls have scored the fourth-most goals (17) in MLS NEXT Pro this season and had 11 different players find the back of the net which is the third-most in MLS NEXT Pro. Speaking of finding the back of the net, 16-year-old midfielder Adri Mehmeti scored his first career professional goal against NYCFC II and midfielder Ibrahim Kasule leads the team in goal contributions with five, one goal away from becoming the Baby Bulls’ all-time leading goal scorer.
To start focusing on New England, the Baby Bulls must first shake off their emotional loss last week, which is a process that manager Ibrahim Sekagya shed some light on.
After the game, we talked. We need to understand that the game is always 90 minutes. It’s not just one half, and then the next half is a different game and if we correct those mistakes, we will be good. The only thing which we have to think about is moving on. We talked about this in the week. We have to move on. Now we have a game against New England. It’s a team which is also strong. But the takeaway from that game is we need to finish it earlier. We have to use our chances and the game would have gone another way. Would have finished it five to one in the first half, and then we just have to correct our mistakes.
One bright spot from the Baby Bulls loss last week was Red Bulls Academy product Matthew Dos Santos. The 16-year-old scored his second goal of the season last week against NYCFC II, a volley inside the 18-yard box. Dos Santos also played a full 90-minute game and he touched on what he learned from the match.
After the result versus City, conceding five wasn’t great, but during the week, this week has obviously been a main focus defensively, and that shifting aspect that’s really important, in a back four, and that’s mainly what we’ve been focusing for New England, as they play a very aggressive attacking style, so we just got to do our jobs this time.
New England come into Sunday’s match hot on the Baby Bulls’ tail in the Eastern Conference standings. New England are in sixth place in the Eastern Conference and have won three games in a row. Their most recent win came against Toronto FC II and the Revs prevailed 9:8 in a penalty shootout in a 3-3 game.
As recently as April 26, the Revs II held NYCFC II to just one goal, defeating them 2-1. The Revs II is tied for third in MLS NEXT Pro for the least goals conceded this season (7).
Cracking their backline will not be easy but Coach Sekagya described how his team plans to go about that.
If we stick to our style of play and the way we want to play in that game, the things we work on during the week. Yeah, we know they have a good backline but the most important is going to be us and the good things is we have a lot of chances. We just have to finish our chances on the day and if our strikers have a good day and finish our chances, then it will be much easier.
The Revs II’s 6 goal differential is tied for the fourth best in the league. Coach Sekagya touched on what the Revs II do best and what his team will have to be aware of heading into Sunday’s Eastern Conference showdown in Montclair.
Where they play the long balls, the switch off play when we are pressing. These are the things we have to be more careful when they switch the ball when we are pressing them. We don’t need to give them time. But these are the things we work on in the week. As I said from the beginning, the most important is us. When we do our stuff the way how we want to play, I think the games can change, but we have to adapt anyway.
Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. at MSU Soccer Park on the campus of Montclair State University. Time will tell if the Baby Bulls can keep the momentum of their season going in their ninth game and fourth home game of the 2025 MLS NEXT Pro season.
