Three weeks after Red Bull New York II lost to Huntsville City FC on MLS NEXT Pro’s Decision Day, they get a rematch, but it is the Eastern Conference’s win-or-go-home, play-in round match.
The winner will face the Eastern Conference’s top-seed Crown Legacy FC.
Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Sunday October 11 and it will be the first-ever playoff meeting between the two clubs.
The eighth-seeded Baby Bulls, who are led by first-year head coach Dominik Wohlert, are aiming to defend their MLS NEXT Pro Cup title, while ninth-seeded Huntsville, led by head coach Chris O’Neal, made the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
Huntsville are used to upsetting higher-seeded opponents. Last year, they upset No. 4 Chattanooga FC in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, before losing to Philadelphia Union II in the semis.
Huntsville’s five wins in their last six regular season matches saw them rise from 13th to ninth place during that span.
During that same stretch the Baby Bulls had three regulation wins and one shootout win, but they dropped their regular season finale 2-1 to Huntsville at their home field, MSU Soccer Park, which made them slide from third to eighth in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Baby Bulls will do everything in their power to avoid an upset in what will be their last match at home this year. Let’s find out more about how they match up with Huntsville City FC.
Analyzing the Decision Day Result
Decision Day proved that Huntsville will not be fazed by a playoff knockout match on the road.
Huntsville came into Montclair on Sept. 20 and struck first on Zidane Yanez’s header off of Moisés Véliz’s free kick service. Then they struck again on Malachi Molina’s goal before Pedrinho Castro pulled a goal back for the Baby Bulls in the 90th minute, in his debut, but it was too little too late and Huntsville moved up into the final playoff spot with a 2-1 victory.
After that match, Coach Wohlert said this about the Baby Bulls’ performance:
“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.”
At Thursday’s media availability, Coach Wohlert broke down the goals they conceded and put the focus on his team’s performance.
“I think it’s just the commitment in some ways in these moments to defend together and we have clear principles in these moments. And when you see them not getting executed in the right way, then that’s what I mean with cheap goals because someone is just falling asleep or not active enough or not following our principles in this case.”
Gallagher: Key to Success is “Staying Together”
Eighteen-year-old forward Christian Gallagher signed his first MLS NEXT Pro contract on July 3 after developing for three years in the Red Bulls Academy from 2023-2025.
The Arizona-native has seized his opportunity to play for Red Bull New York II this season as he led Wohlert’s team this year with nine regular-season goals and finished third on the team in goal contributions (11) behind Dennis Nelich’s 13 and Dennis Gjengaar’s 12.
During Thursday’s media availability, Gallagher spoke confidently about his team’s ability to improve from the result on Decision Day.
I mean, from what I’ve seen, it’s just simple things that we gave up to be honest in the game against Huntsville. I think that mainly throughout the game, we dominated with the ball. You know, we had a couple chances. Overall, I’m not too worried about it.
Gallagher expressed confidence in his team’s ability to control the game through possession, while Coach Wohlert expressed confidence in his team’s ability to lean on the defensive and offensive structure that helped them make the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
Can we push our game to the next level? Can we create more chances? [We’ll need to] enter more often the box to put even more pressure on Huntsville and that will be the expectation from minute one that we are dominant again, that we find solutions in ball possession…and when we do that, when we win our duels, when we are online in rest defense, then it can be a good performance for us. As I always said, I want to focus first on our performance and not on the result. I always think that when the performance is good, most of the time you will get the results. So, we try to push for that and I’m really positive that the guys are ready.
Team unity is important at this time of year. The air is cooler outside; it gets dark earlier and the lights inside the stadium shine brighter.
Gallagher offered his thoughts when asked which of the team’s qualities will be a key factor on Sunday.
I think just staying together. This is the main topic, honestly. Just sticking together through it all and just being a group. You know, not having separate groups, just being one whole family. I think that’s a key factor to it, and just working together through it all.
The MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference play-in round match will take place at MSU Soccer Park on the campus of Montclair State University on Sunday, October 11 at 5 p.m. Coverage of the match will be available on MLSNEXTPro.com and OneFootball.
The weather forecast for Sunday in Montclair includes a 100 percent chance of rain, which will not suspend/stop the match from being played.
