Bafana led the match at the Forsyth Barr Stadium 2-0 up until the 79th minute, but once again failed to close out the game.

To make matters whose, they had to make do without their captain Refiloe Jane for the majority of the crucial game after she was stretchered off the field with an ankle injury.

Linda Motlahlo put South Africa in the lead with a 30th minute goal, but Thembi Kgatlana doubled the lead in the 66th.

Sophia Bruan scored Argentina's first goal in the 76th minute before the substitute Romina Nunez netted the equaliser three minutes later.

The coach Desiree Ellis rightly said that they once again created so many opportunities and only managed to convert to of them into goals, and this conversion rate needs to be a lot better if they are to record a first win at the World Cup finals.

“If you make better decisions, we would be talking differently once again. You cannot create all those chances and they get those two chances at the backend and manage to score.

“It’s about taking our chances and making better decisions in the final third. It doesn’t matter who scores, it’s about putting someone who's in a better position, and has a better opportunity to score in.”

“Our defence has been magnificent. But how many chances did we create and fail to convert? How many final entries did we have and were not complete?

“That’s where the problem lies - we are not taking the chances that we create. We are always going to be a team that creates chances. When the goals are going in, we look at the defence.

“We need to look a bit further up. Why are we not passing to someone that is free? Why are we not taking our chances? If we are taking our chances, we are going to have a whole different conversation.”

Banyana will face Italy in Wellington on Wednesday in their final group game. For South Africa to advance the will need to beat Italy, while they will need Sweden to beat both Italy and Argentina.

Wednesday’s match at the Wellington Regional Stadium kicks off at 9:00.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport