New York City FC II’s unbeaten run to start the 2025 MLS Next Pro season came to an end on Sunday afternoon against New York Red Bulls II.
The latest MLS Next Pro edition of the Hudson River Derby saw goals, plenty of yellows, and even a late red card shown to the Baby Blues.
In the end, NYRB II scored a late penalty kick by First Team player Julian Zakrzewski Hall to give the home squad the 3-2 win.
Big stage, big game
The game at Sports Illustrated Stadium, formerly known as Red Bull Arena, was Red Bulls II’s first home match of the year. The Major League Soccer venue played host as a way to honor the 10th anniversary of New York Red Bulls II – those 10th anniversaries are popular on both sides of the Hudson River this year.
Red Bull II kicked off their first season with an inaugural match in Harrison, NJ on Saturday, March 28, 2015, a 0-0 draw against the Rochester Rhinos.
Eleven seasons later, and in another battle of New Jersey vs New York, Red Bulls II came out flying in front of around 200 fans.
Wiktor Bogacz, less than 24 hours removed from making his MLS debut, scored his first-ever Next Pro goal. A Julian Hall shot forced City II keeper Mac Learned to extend, the ball hitting off his fingertips. The Polish striker bounced on the loose rebound to open the scoring in the 7th minute.
Five minutes later, New York City FC II equalized. Midfielder Piero Elias started the play on the left side by brilliantly bobbing two Red Bulls players and sending them to the ground. He passed to Máximo Carrizo on the left wing, whose long ball into the box found Julien Lacher. Whether it was a kick attempt or just coming off his body, the ball hit the back of the net past Aidan Stokes to make it 1-1.
Nice Máximo Carrizo assist (following nice footwork from Piero Elias) on the first half goal scored by NYCFC II’s Julien Lacher
— Hudson River Blue (@hudsonriverblue.com) March 30, 2025 at 3:22 PM
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Lacher mentioned postgame how much this match meant to him. With family in the stands and memories of coming here to watch games when he was younger, he was more than happy to get his first goal of the season like that.
"Especially as a kid, living close to the area and going to games here. It was amazing just to go to play in the stadium. It was just great and the goal, you know, it's just my job to get to the back post," Lacher said afterward. "Maxi played a good ball and I just finished it."
New York City FC II Head Coach Matt Pilkington noted his group struggled out of the gate. The Red Bulls dominated their 4-2-3-1 formation early on. It was only the fast breaks that gave City II any offense in the game’s first 20 minutes. As the half wore on, the ball slowly crept closer to the Red Bull end. Still, his group only leveled one shot on target in the first half, bookended with a skied chance by Chris Tiao in stoppage time.
"I thought our performance was a little bit inconsistent," Pilkington said after the match. "There were some really good moments, some really positive and good parts of the game. Then there were moments in the game where we lost the ball too much, gave the ball away."
"Whilst we didn't start the game very well, I thought we picked it up into the first half and had some really good moments."
Those moments could include a great save by keeper Learned, who dove to stop a curving Tanner Rosborough shot in the 31st minute.
Gray continues his comeback
What was more striking was the appearance and start of New York City defender Tayvon Gray. The Bronx native made his second appearance in a starting eleven this season with reserves following his injury against Los Angeles FC on MLS Matchday 2. In total, Gray played 63 minutes of the match and only committed one foul.
On his performance today, Matt Pilkington said he’s been an asset to the younger players as he prepares to return to Major League Soccer action.
"He's getting extra minutes just to prepare him for when he's back with the First Team,” Pilkington said. “So, it's good to have him around. He's an excellent pro and a high-level player. It helps young players, it helps the environment and obviously we're trying to progress him so he can get fit and healthy."
Hot-tempered, high-tempo finish
Following the break, New York City pressed the Red Bull defense hard. In the 57th minute, former Northwestern midfielder Collin McCamy took a shot from the top of the box, beating NYRB II keeper Aidan Stokes.
MCCAMY WITH THE LONG-DISTANCE EFFORT 😍 pic.twitter.com/YqL8oAs4p9
— New York City FC II (@newyorkcityfcii) March 30, 2025
It was a second assist for Carrizo, who had a stellar game while playing eight days removed making his MLS debut in Columbus, as his development accelerates in 2025.
“He was excellent today, definitely, you know, really impactful in the game, creating chances, good movement, good final ball entries,” Pilkington said of the midfielder. “He rises to the challenge in an environment like today. You could see he was very motivated.”
By this time, the Baby Pigeons had been shown at least three yellows and were showing the most aggression of the two teams. While that aggression gave them the offensive edge in the early goings, it started to backfire. A fast run by the Red Bulls in the 67th off a throw-in caught the Baby Blues sleeping. Rafael Mosquera equalized from the top of the box, getting around a wobbling City defender off an assist from Julian Hall.
Red Bulls continued to push, and City continued to commit fouls. Eventually, Piero Elias saw a second yellow after a hard takedown of an attacking Red Bulls player, and forced his team to play the last ten minutes reduced to 10 men.
Despite this, NYCFC II still tried to get that go-ahead goal. A break by Seymour Reid in the 81st saw him get around a sliding Bulls II defender before his shot was stopped by a diving Stokes’ legs.
In the 85th minute, New York defensive midfielder and Staten Island, NY native Adri Mehmeti went to ground in the box during a corner kick, making contact with Lacher. Julian Hall stepped up to the spot and converted what would be the game-winning goal.
"We deserve more, to be honest, and for how we played, even with 10 men, we thought we played okay in certain moments," Pilkington said of the result. "We just have to learn that, in these environments, the officiating can become very emotional and we just have to be better and make better decisions because, in my opinion, it wasn't a penalty."
"It's part of, it's part of the environment in these derbies, so we have to learn from them. We have to be a little bit more mature in our decision-making," said Pilkington.
The win is the second of the young season for Red Bulls II and the first loss for NYCFC II in 2025.
Next stop: Carolina
New York City II’s next match is against Carolina Core FC, one of the few non-MLS affiliated teams in MLS Next Pro. The team will have an opportune chance to gain momentum following this first loss.
Despite NYCFC II making the trek to North Carolina, the Core are still seeking their first league win and have already been beaten once by NYCFC II, 2-1 at Belson Stadium in Queens on March 24. Carolina Core will also be coming off an Open Cup-plus-local-rivalry match against USL League One side Charlotte Independence.
That Carolina Core-NYCFC II match will be on Saturday, April 5 in High Point, North Carolina with a 7:00 pm ET kickoff. Expect the match to be streamed either on Apple TV through MLS Season Pass, or for free on YouTube. The team's next home match at Belson Stadium will be a few days later on April 9 against FC Cincinnati 2.
While the loss in Harrison stings, the showing by the players in a high-stakes environment was telling. The team is still near the top of the Eastern Conference table early in the season. With the age of the team being extremely young, reaching down to 17 in the case of players like Julien Lacher, even a loss can matter.
"We didn't give up, we kept going and even though they scored…even until the very end, we had a chance right at the end," Lacher said. "We didn't let off."
It’s a sentiment his coach shared. "We'll reflect on the game. We'll dig into it a little bit deeper," Pilkington said. "The biggest thing for us is: Can these players learn from the environment? Can they learn from the game itself, and can you help them develop to the next level?"
