Although Bafana were never troubled by their mediocre opponents,

Bafana again lacked killer instinct and should have buried

Mauritius under an avalanche of goals.

This lack of killer instinct

must be a major concern to national head coach Joel Santana just

two weeks before Bafana meet Iraq in the opening Confederations Cup

group A match at Ellis Park on June 14.

Santana and his players get another chance to rectify matters

when they play Poland at the new-look Orlando Stadium in their

final warm-up game next Saturday.

Santana will have all his overseas based players by Tuesday and

will be able to field a full side against Poland in what will be

Santana's last chance to work out his best combination for Iraq,

No caps were awarded for this match which was a training match

to help Bafana and Santana prepare for the Confederations Cup.

The score was not important. But the fact Bafana missed so many

chances and failed to punish their opponents ranked 171 in the Fifa

rankings underlined Bafana's lack of punch and experience in

attack.

Bafana's three opponents in the Confederations Cup, Spain the

best team in the world at present, Iraq and even the New Zealand

part-timers are light years better than this weak Mauritius side

that did their best but were totally outplayed.

As a training exercise this practice match served its purpose,

but it was never going to be a competitive match. The Indian Ocean

islanders were not expected to put up much resistance.

This was all

about building much needed confidence for Bafana ahead of the

Confederations Cup in two weeks.

Bafana goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune did not even have a back

pass to deal with in a completely one sided first half in which

Bafana created and wasted countless chances. It was simply too

easy.

So bad were the Mauritius strikers that Khune was given some

extra practice during the halftime break by goalkeeping coach Alex

Revoredo.

Santana failed to give any of his other three keepers a chance

and kept Khune on for the entire match.

The game started off brightly when Benson Mhlongo blasted home

the opening goal in the sixth minute when he latched onto a clever

through ball from Katlego Mphela and cleverly chipped keeper Ivan

Jose.

Jose was in the thick of the action, stopping goal bound shots

from Teko Modise and Mphela in the 17th and 19th minutes

respectively.

Jose did well again in the 31st minute when he managed to fist

Aaron Mokoena's header for a corner after the Bafana skipper

connected a well aimed Modise corner.

Modise shaved the woodwork on 40 minutes after his he was set up

with a clever training ground free kick taken by live wire right

back Siboniso Gaxa.

Modise, who dominated the midfield, crashed a 20 metre free kick

against the Mauritius crossbar two minutes from the break and a

minute later Katlego Mashego watched in frustration as his effort

on goal was deflected for a corner.

Mauritius continued to pack their defence after the break. But

the visitors did test Khune when Jean Reck forced Khune to palm his

53rd minute shot for a corner.

But a wonder goal from Lance Davids in the 67th minute had the

crowd of 3 000 on their feet. Davids unleashed a 35 metre rocket

that bulged the net giving Jose no chance. After that the match

fizzled out.

Santana was able to give most of his players a run except for

Belgium based midfielder Masilo Modubi and the other three keepers.