Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira must be a proud man following Bafana's 6-2 demolition of Swaziland at the weekend, but the Brazilian mentor still needs to sort out his team's defence if Bafana want to be a realistic challenger at the World Cup later this year.

But the good thing about Saturday's game is that Bafana scored goals ? plenty of them ? something that has been missing in their game for a long time.

Granted, Swaziland are not a powerhouse in international football, but that can be said about Madagascar and Botswana as well, both of whom Bafana struggled against in recent games.

Having said that, don?t read too much into the Swaziland result because there was only ever going to be one team in it.

The two goals that Swaziland managed to score were more a result of defensive lapses from Bafana Bafana than anything else.

And that should be worrying factor for Parreira because if countries like Swaziland can breach the Bafana defence, it won't be difficult for the likes of Mexico, Uruguay and France, who Bafana will face in Group A of the World Cup, to follow suit.

The central defence has been a problematic area for Bafana for a long time, and it needs to be sorted out immediately if Bafana Bafana have any hopes of progressing through to the second round of the World Cup.

But with Bafana missing out on the ongoing African Cup of Nations tournament in Angola, Parreira has to use friendlies to test his squad?s strengths, and judging by their defensive frailties, that might not be good enough.

The likes of Aaron Mokoena, Nasief Morris, Bongani Khumalo, Morgan Gould and Matthew Booth ? whose defensive blunder led to one of Swaziland's goals ? have been tried in the central department, but no combination seems to work.

This brings us back to Mbulelo Mabizela, who I still insist should be given a chance as well, because he may be the answer to the problem. Then again he might not be the answer, but he needs to give the opportunity to show us what he can do.

What is clear though, is that Bafana have a problem in the central defence position and that problem needs to be sorted now. If not, South Africans must brace themselves for the humiliation of being branded the first host country not to reach the second round of the World Cup!