China's women soccer coach Marika Domanski-Lyfors finally made her decision to leave after keeping the team, administration and fans on tender hooks for a month.

China Football Association (CFA) made the announcement on Wednesday after an overnight negotiation with the Swede that ended in vain.

China's coach Marika Domanski-Lyfors of Sweden (C) comforts her player Han Duan after their loss to Norway at the quarterfinal match of the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup soccer tournament in Wuhan, China Sunday Sept. 23, 2007. Norway defeated China 1-0. [Xinhua] The negotiation was a last-ditch effort to keep Domanski-Lyfors with less than a year before the Beijing Olympics. The women's team, nicknamed "Steel Roses" by fans, was expected to regain their 1990s glory, after they stormed to silver finishes in 1999 World Cup and 1996 Atlantic Olympic Games.

Domanski-Lyfors skirted around giving a definitive answer to her contract extension after China was eliminated Norway 0-1 in the quarter-finals at last month's FIFA Women's World Cup. She took the helm of the team late in March this year with her contract stipulating that she could be fired if the team didn't make the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

Last week, she hinted she might abandon the team, saying she longed to spend more time with her family. She added she and her assistant couldn't get used to eating Chinese food.

The Swede explained she postponed making the final the decision time twice during the past two weeks because she needed to wait for the results of her assistant's physical check-up to decide whether they would remain in China.

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