Red Bull New York II hosted Huntsville City FC at MSU Soccer Park Sunday in their regular season finale and lost by the final score of 2-1.
On Sunday afternoon, eight matches featuring MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference teams and seven involving Western Conference teams took place on MLS NEXT Pro’s Decision Day.
While the first and second place teams had cemented their places in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, seven teams were vying for five playoff spots (third through seventh place) that were up for grabs in the east heading into the final day of the regular season.
Red Bull New York II’s opponent, Huntsville City came into today’s match on the outside of the playoff picture but only two points behind Connecticut United FC who occupied the ninth and final spot.
First Half
The Baby Bulls got the game’s first scoring chance just minutes in. Sean Baitinger won the ball back in midfield and played a through ball into the path of Rafael Mosquera. The Red Bull first team player dribbled into the 18-yard box and passed to Mijahir Jimenez, who managed to get a shot off while being pulled back by an opponent but his shot was saved by Will Mackay.
Referee Stephen Foster laid down the law early, producing the first of his six yellow cards in the fifth minute and showing it to Red Bull midfielder Sekou Kone.
At the 11-minute mark, Huntsville won the ball in their own half and went the other way on a counter attack. Eventually, Owen Presthus ripped a right-footed shot from 18 yards out that Morristown’s Tobias Szewczyk had to tip over the bar with a strong hand.
In the 20th minute, Benjamin Rodriguez won a free kick right on the edge of the box in the center of the field. Mosquera took it and sent it into the wall and the second ball was collected by Omar Valencia and shot straight into Mackay’s hands.
In the 39th minute, Rodriguez earned a yellow after he reacted to a hard challenge from Huntsville’s Moises Veliz.
Second Half
Just three minutes into the second half, the first goal of the match was scored by Huntsville’s Zidane Yanez. Yanez headed a cross from Veliz’s free kick directly over the head of Szewczyk and into the net to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Seven minutes later, Huntsville scored again but this time it was waived off for being offside.
In the 58th minute, New York made three substitutions:
- Andy Rojas replaced Tanner Rosborough
- Christian Gallagher replaced Jimenez
- Pedro Castro replaced Mosquera
In the 72nd minute, Baitinger won the ball deep in Huntsville’s half and pushed forward. He eventually got into the box and passed to Rodriguez who unleashed a strong right-footed strike that was deflected out of play by a dive and strong hand from Mackay.
Huntsville City tacked on a second goal when they got out on the counter and Molina warded off Red Bull center back Leonardo Dieujuste before kicking the ball past Szewczyk and into the net.
Despite being down two late in the match, Red Bull never stopped pushing for a goal.
Newly signed winger Pedro Castro received a pass from Red Bull captain Nate Worth by the sideline before unleashing a powerful, left-footed strike that beat Mackay to the left side of the net in the 90th minute. However, the Brazilian’s first MLS NEXT Pro goal was too little too late.
Full-back Connor Faello was able to get a shot from distance on target in stoppage time but it was saved by Mackay, who finished the day with a game-high five saves.
Reactions from Red Bull
After a nervewracking decision day, Red Bull New York II will now prepare to host a play-in game to earn a spot in the Eastern Conference quarter finals and the right to continue defending their MLS NEXT Pro Cup title.
The Baby Bulls came into today’s match against Huntsville City in third place in MLS NEXT Pro’s Eastern Conference, but fell to eighth place after five teams that were behind them all won either in regulation or in a penalty shootout.
It was a rough turn of events for RBNY II, but after the match, head coach Dominik Wohlert highlighted the area of his team’s game that needs to improve.
Overall, I can say again that it was a decent game, a good game from us, how we pushed, how we created chances, how dominant we were. But there have been too many games where the opponent doesn’t have many situations against us, yet they get cheap goals, easy goals. We have to defend better. That’s the task for the guys who learn from it, make it better. Now, in three weeks, we basically have the rematch, so that’s the focus.
In the end, Red Bull dominated the game from the statistical standpoint, topping Huntsville in shot attempts 19 to 7 and shots on goal 6 to 5, but they were not sharp in transition moments and set pieces defensively.
Definitely a tough game for us. You look back at the game, and for 90 percent of it, we’re on top of it, we’re trying to push and doing all those kinds of things. Part of playing against a team that is compact and sits in a low block is that you’re susceptible to the counterattack, and on the second goal, that’s kind of what happened. We switched off a little bit, they got in behind, and then the first one was just not good enough defensively on a set piece. Other than that, they didn’t have too much. But it’s those kinds of moments that ultimately define games. – Red Bull New York II captain Nate Worth
RBNY II finish the 2026 MLS NEXT Pro regular season 8th place in the Eastern Conference and turn their attention to a rematch with Huntsville City which will be played at a time and location to be determined.
Worth expressed confidence in his team’s ability to bounce back from this result and turn the page.
Obviously, it’s not where we want to be. We don’t want to be playing a play-in game, but the reality is that we are playing that game. So we’ll look back at the film and all that kind of stuff, but we know that if it’s our day, we can beat this team for sure. It’s just about cleaning up the little things and preparing for when that game comes.
