China coach Shui Qingxia blamed herself and said her players must be "more mature" after losing to Japan in the semi-finals of the Asian Games women's football on Tuesday.
The hosts went down 4-3 after a first-half capitulation left them with too much to do against the free-scoring defending champions, who average seven goals a game.
Shui had a full-strength squad in Hangzhou and started the semi-final with 10 players who appeared in China's first-round exit at this summer's World Cup.
The coach said it was "my fault" as her team failed to win a first Asian Games gold since 1998, with Japan advancing to play North Korea in Friday's final.
"Japan were very strong and they were united -- we should learn from them," said Shui, whose team shipped six goals against England at the World Cup.
"We want to learn lessons from our failures in other games we've played. We want to be more mature."
Japan went into half time with a commanding 4-1 lead but China made a game of it after the break, scoring twice to leave them trailing by only one goal with half an hour remaining.
China had chances to equalise and Shui said the result would have been different "if we had paid attention to details".
"We didn't expect this situation in the first half but football is like that -- sometimes games can change very quickly," she said.
"In transition maybe we were a bit hurried and impatient. After half time we did better."
Japan have brought an inexperienced side to the Asian Games.
Of the squad that reached the World Cup quarter-finals, only Remina Chiba was in Tuesday's starting XI.
Even World Cup coach Futoshi Ikeda has not made the journey to China, but stand-in Michihisa Kano believes his young side are still up to the task.
"We have a lot of new and young players who are getting their first experience of top football here," said Kano, usually the under-19 coach.
"This is a great experience for our young players and I feel they will help take Japanese women's football forward."
North Korea thrashed Uzbekistan 8-0 in the other semi-final with four goals from striker Kim Kyong Yong.
The North Koreans are looking to claim women's football gold for a fourth time.
But Japan have scored 35 goals in five games at the tournament and Kano is confident they can get more in the final.
"We have scored a lot of goals since the first round and the players have been able to combine well," he said.
"We had a lot of variation in our play and the fact that we turned that into goals has given the players a lot of confidence."
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