After a rather disappointing World Cup campaign in France, Banyana Banyana seek to find solace in the Cosafa Women's Championship.

Skipper Janine van Wyk has underlined the significance of retaining their Cosafa Cup title. This regional tournament will be hosted in Port Elizabeth from July 31 to August 11.

"The aim is to defend it. The Cosafa Cup is always important to us because it's the only competition where we get to play a number of games in a short space of time, that brings about competitiveness," Van Wyk reasoned.

Banyana are pitted against Malawi, Madagascar and Comoros in Group A.

Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Mauritania will battle it out in Group B, while Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola and Eswatini face-off in Group C.

With Van Wyk already 32 years old, many expect her to start thinking about hanging up her boots, especially after leading SA to their maiden World Cup.

But that seems far-fetched as she still has huge ambitions, hinting that she would like to play her second World Cup in 2023, perhaps on home soil. SA has made it clear that they want to host the tournament.

"I will continue to serve my country. It was wonderful to play at the World Cup, but you always want more as a person.

"We have the Olympic qualifiers coming up. [That thought of hanging my boots] hasn't really crossed my mind."

The former Houston Dash centre-back is drawing inspiration from the USA team that aims to defend their World Cup when locking horns against the Netherlands in the final today (5pm SA time).

"If you look at the ongoing World Cup, the whole US national team has the average of 31-year-olds and that's my age," she added.