ABC Motsepe League National Play-Offs | 1-7 June 2026
NB La Masia’s first national-playoff campaign as Gauteng champions ended in forty-eight hours and two narrow defeats. The Johannesburg side lost 2-1 to Mpumalanga’s Luthuli Brigades on Wednesday 3 June and 3-2 to North West University the following day, finishing the Group A round-robin without a point and outside the top two before the semi-finals had even begun. Two heartbreaks, both decided by the smallest margins, leave the club with the long off-season to absorb what could have been.
Match Day 1 — Luthuli Brigades 2 La Masia 1 (3 June)
The opener at Mthatha Stadium set the tone for the week. Luthuli Brigades, the Mpumalanga representatives, took a 1-0 lead before half-time through a goal that exposed the gap between provincial dominance and national-playoff intensity — La Masia’s central defence stepped up too high, the cover did not arrive in time. Luthuli doubled their lead early in the second half. La Masia pulled one back through sustained pressure and pushed for the equaliser deep into added time, but the second goal would not come. A 2-1 defeat against a side that managed the game more comfortably than the scoreline suggested.
The Johannesburg side had played well enough to take a point. They did not. That distinction is what playoff football is built on.
Match Day 2 — NWU 3 La Masia 2 (4 June)
Twenty-four hours later, La Masia carried the bigger emotional burden into the second fixture. They responded as the league champions they were and took a two-goal lead against North West University Soccer Institute, the pre-tournament favourites in Group A. For the first half-hour, the Gauteng side were unanswerable. Then NWU pulled one back before the break, two more after it, and La Masia found themselves on the wrong side of a 3-2 result that ended their promotion hopes.
The third NWU goal was the killer — late enough to break La Masia’s spirit, early enough to give the Purple Army time to manage the closing stages without panic. The 3-2 final score did not flatter NWU. It did not punish La Masia harshly either. It was simply the difference between a team that closes games and a team learning how to.
What it meant for the group
NWU went on to top Group A, beat KwaZulu-Natal champions Mkhambathi in the semi-final, and contest the national final at Mthatha Stadium on Sunday 7 June. La Masia, the Gauteng representatives, finished bottom of Group A on zero points and were eliminated from promotion contention before the second round of fixtures had even been played.
What La Masia have built
The wider story is that La Masia, who entered the 2026 ABC Motsepe season as a club that had spent recent years in the lower reaches of the South African pyramid, finished it as Gauteng champions and national-playoff contenders. The two defeats in Mthatha hurt because they were within reach — and they tell you the club is now operating at the level where matches turn on the smallest of margins.
