The 2025 MLS NEXT Pro season carries on for the Red Bulls II (10-3-3) as Michael Bradley’s team will look to shake off their first home loss of the season when they go north of the border to face Toronto FC II (6-6-3) on Friday at 7 p.m. ET.
Coming off a loss against Huntsville City FC last Sunday, the Red Bulls II remain first place in the MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference. Toronto may be ninth, but they have been a consistent team this season and have won two of their last three games. Albeit in their most recent game they suffered a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Philadelphia Union II.
Toronto FC II’s top offensive player this season has been Hassan Ayari, who has four goals and two assists and leads the team with six goal contributions. Midfielder Malik Henry leads the Canadians with four assists.
The Baby Bulls goalkeeper who will be tasked with stopping Toronto’s attack on Friday will be 17-year-old Aidan Stokes. The Totowa-native has solidified himself as the Baby Bulls first choice goalkeeper this season, has logged the most minutes on the squad (1,295) and earned four clean sheets (three more than he had all of last season).
Stokes described the mental fortitude his team has shown since suffering their first home loss of the season, which they will try to carry over into Friday’s game.
We go into every game expecting the best from our opponent, knowing that they’re going to try their hardest to beat us. And we just tend to focus on what we can do to beat them. Our goal every week is to outwork the team, no matter the results. So I think that’s our main focus going into the game against them.
Friday will be somewhat of a homecoming for NYRB II head coach Michael Bradley as he spent 10 seasons with Toronto FC from 2014-2023. While there, Bradley was a captain, won four Canadian Cups and one MLS Cup in 2017.
I’m excited to come back to Toronto for sure. I haven’t really been back now in this last year and a half, and I’m excited. Excited to maybe see a few people from the club. Obviously, again, I had really good relationships with everybody at TFC II. You know, [TFC II head coach] Gianni [Cimini] Dave [Monsalve] like you name it, Frankie [Russo], the equipment guy. All of these guys are great, great people, and I had really good relationships with all of them, so I’m excited to, for sure, see them. If there’s an opportunity to see a few others around the club, I’ll look forward to that too.
Despite suffering their first loss at MSU Soccer Park last weekend, the Baby Bulls have scored 39 goals this season which is the most in MLS NEXT Pro. They have also not been held scoreless, which shows how consistent they’ve been.
Stokes described what’s been the key to his team’s success.
It’s about the mentality and the brotherhood we have on and off the field and in training every day. So I think it’s really the group mentality we put together. And when we go into games, it’s like no one on their team is going to work harder than we do. We want to leave that field every game with no regrets. So it’s really just a mentality thing, obviously, along with all the technical quality and the depth we have within the team, but the number one thing this year has been our mentality.
One of the themes to a succesful season in sports is sacrifice and midfielder turned defender Steven Sserwadda has embodied that. In May, Sserwadda made the switch from a defensive midfielder to right-back and the results have been that the Baby Bulls have posted a 6-2-1 record in the nine games that Sserwadda has been their starting right-back.
After his first three games as a head coach, Michael Bradley has now seen what it’s like to be on the other side of that coach-player relationship after spending nearly 20 years as a player. He described what he’s learned about his new role.
It’s one thing to be a leader in a team and a captain now, [who] tries to help the group and help younger players and take a big role in all those ways. It’s a completely different thing to be a coach and now to have the responsibility every day to lead the group, to make sure that everybody’s going in the right direction, to manage and lead your staff. Manage, then the players and find the right ways to put all that together. I understand your point. In some ways it can be a natural progression. But when you now have the chance to step to the other side, and now you see what it is, what it all is, what it all really entails, you are living and learning every single day.
Two Red Bulls II players who have progressed far this season despite being two of the youngest players on the roster are Aiden Jarvis and Adri Mehmeti. Mehmeti, the 16-year-old midfielder is the youngest starter on the team and Jarvis, a midfielder as well, is not much different being 17 years old. They have made for a dynamic partnership in the center of midfield and have learned a lot from a former central midfielder himself, Michael Bradley during the three weeks that he has been in charge.
Stokes is also part of the youth movement on this team and he described what playing in a league where sometimes opponents are as much as 20 years older than he, has been like and what it’s done for his development.
It’s been really good in a sense, where it’s kind of just thrown me into that professional environment. So I’ve been able to get professional experience and play against a wide variety of ages all the way from 40 to playing with 15-year-olds and kids my age. So it’s been really good in terms of the diversity within the league. And I think it’s a rising league, which has a lot of talent throughout. So I think it’s a really good first steppingstone for me in my career.
When looking at this matchup on paper, the Red Bulls II have a distinct edge. They have scored more than twice as many goals (39) that Toronto has (16) this season and have higher scoring players like Nehuen Benedetti, who ranks top five in MLS NEXT Pro with six assists. Benedetti leads the Baby Bulls with 12 goal contributions, while NYRB II forward Rafael Mosquera comes in second with eight, two more than Ayari.
The edge goes to the Baby Bulls who will have the added motivation of trying to bounce back from their first regulation loss in two months. However, anybody can beat anybody in MLS NEXT Pro and if you look at it this way, Toronto FC II only have four fewer wins than Bradley’s team this season.
Bradley shed some light on how the process of connecting with his roster which contains 15 players from foreign countries has been going.
It’s an interesting challenge and a fun group to work with. These guys they’re so motivated, they come in everyday really eager to learn, to train, to push themselves because they all know that they’re one step away now from the first team and moving to the next step of their careers. It’s been a lot of fun. We have a really diverse group of players which makes it honestly even better. There’s a mix of profiles, there’s a mix of personalities, a mix of backgrounds. It challenges my ability as a coach to connect with each guy and make sure that my Spanish is continuing to get a little bit better and sharpening up my German again. So in all of these ways it’s fun.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. with coverage available on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
