The New York Red Bulls II (14-5-4, 48 points) will face Columbus Crew II (4-14-4, 17 points) on Sunday right after clinching a berth in the MLS NEXT Pro playoffs last weekend with their win over Chicago Fire II.
Columbus come in with the second-worst record in MLS NEXT Pro and having lost four of their last five matches. Chase Adams is their leading scorer with seven goals, while Anthony Alaouieh leads their team with six assists. The Crew II are coming off a 3-1 defeat to NYCFC II.
The Baby Bulls come in with the second-best record in the league (behind only St. Louis City II) and having won three of their last five matches. This five-game stretch began with a terrible loss against the Fire II in Chicago on July 27 which saw the Baby Bulls surrender a season-high nine goals. But Michael Bradley’s Red Bulls II team got its revenge by beating the Fire II 1-0 on August 24 at MSU Soccer Park.
Their defense has improved in leaps and bounds since late July, as it has surrendered just two goals in their last three matches.
That win was not only important because it was revenge against the Fire II, but because it made the Baby Bulls the first team in the MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference to clinch a playoff berth.
Baby Bulls head coach Michael Bradley described what it’s like to know that his team are guaranteed to make the postseason.
Every team starts a season with the idea of achieving the the first objective, the first goal of which is obviously to be one of the teams that can qualify for the playoffs and give yourself the chance to play more games and see if you can now play until the end. We’re excited. We acknowledged it right away after the game, but we also quickly said, we have bigger goals, and we want to continue to keep pushing ourselves. We want to continue to over these last five games, take as many points as we can, continue to push as many guys along in this whole thing as possible. Continue to take our idea of football within the team, and make it better and better. And we’re excited to to have guaranteed ourselves a 29th game. But in the meantime, there’s still some important games to play and to make sure that we’re going to be at our best when the playoffs come. – Red Bulls II manager Michael Bradley
Midfielder Aiden Jarvis has been instrumental to the Baby Bulls’ success this season, having played in all 22 of his team’s games and started 21 of them. The 18-year-old who signed a four-year deal during the offseason has also contributed two goals and three assists and formed a partnership with Adri Mehmeti as central midfielders.
During a recent media availability, Jarvis described what his team’s goals are now that they’ve accomplished making the MLS NEXT Pro playoffs for the second time out of three years.
It’s a great achievement, and it’s proof of all the hard work that we do here every day. And you know now we’re focused on winning the league. – Red Bulls II midfielder Aiden Jarvis
In terms of the history of this matchup, the Baby Bulls have the edge. The Baby Bulls have gone 3-2-1 against Columbus. This will be the third meeting of the season between these two rivals with the Baby Bulls winning the first two meetings on the road. The first meeting on May 23 was a 1-0 victory by the Red Bulls II that was earned thanks to a free kick goal by Mathew Dos Santos. The second meeting, on July 31, saw Bradley’s club grind out a 2-1 win despite playing with 10 men for 30 minutes.
Even though there are 10 wins and 31 points separating these two teams in the standings, recent results indicate that tomorrow’s match could go either way and Michael Bradley reiterated this during a recent media availability.
Columbus are a good team. I’ve said to the group a few times in this last stretch before different games like the standings can still be deceiving. You know, when you’re a second team, you still deal with different factors on any given weekend that come into things. And so, I still look at Columbus and see a team that has real ideas about how they want to, how they want to play, and how they want to try to make the game. And so we, we expect them to come in here and give us a really good game.
Baby Bulls Take a Hit with International Break
The September 2025 international window is nearly here and that involves a few players per team leaving their domestic clubs to represent their countries in friendlies and World Cup Qualifiers. For the Red Bulls II, they will have to keep up their historic pace without starting goalkeeper Aidan Stokes, homegrown forward Julian Hall, and midfielder Andy Rojas.
The transfer of Rojas from a Costa Rican club to the New York Red Bulls was recently completed and he will be called into the Costa Rican national team. Meanwhile, being that Stokes and Hall are both under 18 years of age, they were each called into the U-17 United States Youth National Team (USYNT) preparation camp from September 1 to 9.
Stokes had been having a stellar year in MLS NEXT Pro. The 17-year-old from Totowa in Essex County has played in 20 matches and posted six clean sheets, which is tied for the second highest in MLS NEXT Pro this season.
Aidan Stokes is a really talented young goalkeeper, he has a really, really interesting profile. And in the time that I’ve been here, he has shown he continues to mature, continues to get better, continues to understand the details that will make him a better goalkeeper as the level goes up. He has good feet. His presence and his maturity in terms of how to, you know, come for high balls, come for crosses. He’s made some big saves for us when we needed them. We’re happy, really happy with his progress, and excited that he gets a chance to now go play with the national team.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at MSU Soccer Park on the campus of Montclair State University.
Jarvis gets the last word.
They’re a good team, and, they have their strengths, but so do we. So we just have to capitalize on all of our chances, and I’m sure we can get three points.
