Johannesburg - A lack of experience cost Bafana Bafana the biggest upset in world soccer.

That was the sobering opinion of Bafana head coach Joel Santana after the top ranked side in the world Spain needed extra time and a 107th minute goal by Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso to earn the European champions a 3-2 extra time victory and third place finish in the Confederations Cup over Bafana at an emotion charged Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Sunday.

Bafana had matched the European champions man for man in this nail biting Confederations Cup third place playoff. But Santana said of the 107th minute free kick that Bafana defender Matthew Booth conceded on the edge of the penalty area when he pulled down substitute Fernando Llorente, "I am not sure that it was a free kick.

"But there are a lot of good things to come out of this tournament. We lacked experience but the only way to gain this experience is by playing the world’s best teams in tournaments like the Confederations Cup.

"We improved with every game. It took Brazil 88 minutes to score against us in the semi-finals and Spain needed extra time to beat us. We have to be doing something right."

Santana said he had a year to make the squad battle ready for the 2010 World Cup and was confident Bafana would be a force to be reckoned with in 2010.

"We are progressing on the right track but we are not there yet. We have to cut out the type of mistakes that cost us goals against Brazil and Spain."

But the Bafana coach stressed that the Confederations Cup was an invaluable learning experience.

"We showed we can compete against the top teams in the world (Brazil and Spain). Now we have to maintain this momentum in our build up to 2010, " said the Brazilian born coach.

Spain coach Vincente de Bosque conceded that Bafana had shocked his European champions.

"South Africa excelled against us in the first half by playing attacking soccer. They did well. But we learnt from our mistakes against the United States in the semifinals (Spain lost 2-0) and were happy to finish in third place against a competitive South Africa team that forced us into extra time."

Santana made some strange decisions on the field but of his clever ones was to introduce Katlego Mphela in the 64th minute for Steven Pienaar. Pienaar had bossed the midfield and looked in a different class. But Santana said he was tiring. However, it was still a gamble to replace his midfield kingpin with Mphela.

But the Mamelodi Sundowns striker who had a poor season in the PSL came up trumps scoring both goals -- the second a candidate for Goal of the Tournament with the last kick of regulation time. It was a free kick that David Beckham or new Real Madrid signing Ronaldo would have been proud of.

"I gave Mphela his opportunity and he took it, " said Santana. " I am pleased for him because now he justified my selecting him for the squad and he will be given more game time when we start our preparations for 2010. He has earned another chance. I was very impressed by the way he took both goals. " The free kick was simply world class."

By SAPA