Two-goal hero Bernard Parker was full of praise for his South Africa team-mates and coach Joel Santana.

South Africa defeated New Zealand with Parker grabbing the headlines in the 2-0 win.

The hosts, who were under severe pressure heading into the game after only managing a draw against Iraq in their tournament opener, dominated from start to finish at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium and could have won by an even bigger margin.

In the end they had the Red Star Belgrade striker to thank after he finally settled nerves by opening the scoring in the 21st minute and sealed the points with a second early in the second half.

His performance was in stark contrast three days earlier against the Asian champions when he was seen by many South Africans as the villain after he somehow got in the way of a goal-bound header from team-mate Kagisho Dikgacoi - a strike that would almost certainly have given Bafana Bafana the opening-day win they so desperately needed.

"I'd like to thank my team-mates for supporting me through the incident that happened," he said.

"They told me they believed in me as well as the coach, who also believed in me that's why he started me today.

"I managed to focus and their guidance in that incident really helped me. And like I said, that's what helped me get the two goals today."

The win against the All Whites could now be enough to book the home side, who moved to four points in Group A, a place in the semi-final, depending on what happens in the final round of fixtures when they face Spain (six) and the Iraqis (one) take on the New Zealanders (nought).

Man-of-the-match Parker felt the hosts did not do too much differently compared with their first game, but just had luck on their side.

He added: "Actually there was no difference in the two games. We had a good game against Iraq without too much luck.

"Today we pushed ourselves hard and we got the luck. With it we managed to get that victory."

New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert will now take his side into their last game knowing they have no chance of qualifying for the semi-final.

And the 48-year-old was clearly disappointed after their latest defeat, which was their eighth consecutive loss in their third appearance at the finals.

"I think we can do a lot better than we did tonight. It (not getting a point in the tournament) is a little bit of a burden on our shoulders and hopefully we can knock that statistic off when we come up against Iraq on Saturday.

"We don't get games of this stature very often, so that should be motivation enough for us. So hopefully they'll turn up and take the pitch in our next game ready and prepared to make a little bit of history."

Reflecting on their early exit, Herbert added the tournament offered his side good experience ahead of a crucial World Cup qualifier later this year.

He added: "For us it's been a lot of travel to get here, which is great. The competition's been top notch for us.

"It's going to be tough for us in October, whoever we get to play from the Asian qualifiers, so we're looking forward to that and we think we have a real chance of coming back for the World Cup."