Nigeria returned from the FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup in India two years ago, bronze medal in hand after defeating Germany in the third-place match.
The result matched Africa's best performance at the tournament, previously accomplished by Ghana in 2012. More importantly, it marked a turning point for Nigeria, with coach Bankole Olowookere having said ahead of the competition that his ambition was to break the quarterfinals ceiling of the 2010, 2012 and 2014 teams.
"Last time I came, they set the target of us doing better than what previous teams have done," Olowookere told ESPN ahead of the 2024 tournament in Dominican Republic. "Because the team had never done better than the quarterfinals, we wanted to make that record of getting past that stage and we were able to do that."
Having checked that box in India, Olowookere is setting a new set of goals in defining success for his team on their return to the competition.
"There are two ways I will define success for us at this tournament," he said. "Personally, I have my goals and then we also have to look at the big picture of what Nigerians want."
On the personal front, the coach would like to see more of his players develop into top-class performers for Nigeria at senior level. Previous graduates of the program who have gone on to represent the Super Falcons with distinction include Desire Oparanozie, Francisca Ordega, Ngozi Okobi, Ebere Orji, Chiamaka Nnadozie, Halimatu Ayinde, Chinwendu Ihezuo, Uchenna Kanu, Christy Ucheibe, and current captain Rasheedat Ajibade.
The 2008 squad produced the most players who went on to become full, regular internationals -- namely Oparanozie, Amarachi Okoronkwo, Orji and Okobi -- and Olowookere wants to count more than that number as his measure of success.
"Having come to this World Cup is a success for us already," he told ESPN. "There are thousands of coaches that have not been selected to do this, and I have been favoured to do it for the second time. There are also millions of young girls out there that have not been noticed or selected, and these girls have been selected to be here.
"I would like to see more than half of them make it to the senior team in the next few years, and if from here they move on to make a success of their lives and their careers, we will count that very successful because I would have contributed in some small way as the foundation of their lives. As a developmental coach, I will count that a bigger success not just for me but for the country."
The coach acknowledges, however, that his employers and the country's football fans will have a more definitive and immediate measure of success for him and the players.
"I understand that the fans and the society will not see it that way, and that is OK," he said. "I know that my fellow technical people will understand what I am saying because development is very important for the future. The expectations from Nigerians will be that we either win the bronze that we got last time, or we do better and get silver or gold. That is what they will call success.
"We understand that is what the fans want, and we will also try to deliver for them so that the country can be happy... that also means job security for me as well. But we don't just want to come here and go back empty handed. We need to do better than what we did last time so we are aiming for that, at least."
To meet what appears to be the minimum objective of a bronze medal, Olowookere has built his team into an attacking monster. The team, the Flamingoes, scored a record 25 goals during the qualifiers, obliterating opponents, and the coach wants that to continue.
"The best way to defend is to attack," he said.
"Our philosophy is to try to score much more goals than the opponents at any point, even as much as we try to stop them from scoring. We always want to try to keep the opponents in their half. If we score two or three goals, the opponents will want to sit back because they will not want to be embarrassed. So they will have to worry about your attack even if they come forward."
Olowookere has a base in the numbers, with Nigeria, historically, the fifth-best scoring side at this tournament, with 52 goals. Only Japan (117), Germany (84), Spain (65) and North Korea (62) have scored more.
Central to the Flamingoes' hopes is Harmony Chidi, who scored 13 of their 25 goals in qualifying, but she remains modest about her accomplishments.
"It is a team game," she told ESPN. "Football is all about teamwork not individuals. I believe without my teammates giving me passes, I would not score the goals I have scored. We are united as a group, and if I see my teammate has a better chance to score, I will make sure I pass to her."
Unity appears to be a value the team has developed to drive them forward, and captain Taiwo Afolabi, who was a member of the 2022 squad, says it is a part of the experience from the tournament in India.
"This is a different team from the last one," Afolabi told ESPN. "But one thing I learned from that team that made us go far was the unity and the sense of family that we had. So as captain, I have tried to bring that same sense of family and unity to help us succeed."
That is only part of the huge influence she brings. Fearless self-confidence is another.
"One of the lessons I learned from the last tournament is not to underrate any team, and not to give too much respect to them, but to go out and play without fear and believing in ourselves."
It is a sentiment shared by her coach, who says the biggest challenge going into the tournament has been an inability to scout the opposition properly.
"We don't look at the countries by name, because if it is by names, then Nigeria should not have been on the podium last time," Olowookere said.
"Preparing for the opponents has been tough because the players change and getting film is difficult. Some teams have different players entirely. Only very few have returning players from the last tournament.
"Because we don't not know much about the teams, we cannot think of any team as weaker or stronger. We see every team as a threat, and we will play them like it is a final.
"We have to respect every opponent and plan for them as much as we can, then when we get on the pitch, we fight as hard as possible."
And score as often as possible.
Goals were key to the Flamingoes' deep run in India. They scored 11 -- short of the 15 scored in the 2010 and 2015 tournaments -- and their defeats came in the games in which they scored only one goal or were kept scoreless.
"At the last World Cup, we scored goals in almost all our matches," Olowookere said. "Even in the third-place game, we were leading 3-0. It is because we scored those goals early, that is why we held on and won in the penalty shootout."
Nigeria open their campaign in Dominican Republic vs. New Zealand on Wednesday afternoon (local time). If they can get the goals flowing, they will send a serious warning to the rest of the field that they are in it to win it all.