Going into her first full NWSL season with the Washington Spirit, Nigeria striker Gift Monday is looking forward to continuing her partnership with United States star Trinity Rodman.
The Super Falcons forward says she is all settled down and champing at the bit to get out on the field and make amends for stumbling at the last hurdle last season.
Reaching their second consecutive NWSL Cup Final, the Spirit fell to a late Rose Lavelle goal against Gotham FC.
The season before that, it was Barbra Banda's first half goal that sent the team from the capital back to DC with nothing.
Although Monday was not around for that, she says reaching a second consecutive Championship game shows the quality of the Spirit, but acknowledges that she - and her teammates - had learned some lessons after falling short of her own standards.
"The way the last season ended, personally, I felt like I didn't show up for that game," she told ESPN.
"I wasn't at all in the game the way I would have liked to.
"That is something I've already learned from and I know that I don't want that to repeat. And I'm very sure that each of my teammates also have, already figured out what went wrong, and now we know what we want."
What they want is simple, to return for a third bite and make it a charm this time.
Monday added: "Anybody that has been in a final wants to win, because we didn't get to the final just to go show up our beautiful kit. We wanted to win the cup but it didn't end the way we wanted.
"So definitely we're still going to try to get to that position and try to win it this time."
A central figure to that potential Championship run would be super star forward Rodman. The USWNT star was the major focus of offseason headlines, as both club and league tried to navigate a thorny route to keep one of their most prized assets at home.
After finally locking down her services, Monday says it is time for the Spirit to weave some magic: "Everyone already knows how much of a great player Trin is, and that is why she's so important in the league, as well as the team.
"At the end of the day, she stayed here, which was actually a big win for Washington Street. I love the fact that I'll get to play alongside Trin this season and I can't wait to see what magic we're going to like perform."
Trinity is not the only one Monday will try to weave spells with. For much of last season, Rodman was injured, fighting her way through a back injury and so Monday's magic happened alongside fellow African Rosemonde Kouassi.
Now, she also has international teammate Deborah Abiodun in the mix: "Deb and I have come a long way, and I really love her combination with me on the pitch.
"I didn't get to play with her much last season, but I feel like this season we have a lot of time to like learn and connect and bring the Nigeria winning mentality to the team."
To bring that mentality, Monday wants to ride on the back of her own self-improvement, after hitting 11 goals last season.
She said: "Before we returned to Washington, I told myself that 'you did amazingly well that season, even though it was your first time in NWSL' and then I told myself, 'go do better than last year'.
"So, personally, that is just my goal. To be better than what I did last season."
And it all begins with a good preseason: "This pre-season was good. It was my first, actual preseason with a club side outside Nigeria. It was an avenue to improve, learn, and prepare myself for the season ahead.
"The best part was getting to see my teammates every day outside of the pitch."
"I got to know them, we played games together, we had coffee, even though I don't like coffee," she said with that impish little chuckle.
"Coffee time is like tea time and that is when all the secrets are spilled. So it was fun."
Naturally, it wasn't all fun and games and spilling secrets: "We talked a lot about what we did wrong last season, and how we want to correct those mistakes.
"And also letting go of whatever happened last season and holding onto what we want to achieve this year."
That camaraderie, Monday said, is what she hopes will set the tone for a great season ahead: "It gives me the confidence that we are ready to chase whatever we want to achieve this season, and we're going to try to get into the final again.
"So yeah, I'm ready for what is ahead."