You haven't really answered the question. They "kept playing until there was a winner" last night under the sudden death system you say you dislike. Should they have continued the overtime period to see if the US could even things up? Also, it might not just be an extra hour, it might be five extra hours like the game I cited above -- it's a rare occurrence, but 3OT playoff games are not uncommon. Given that the closing ceremonies were scheduled for 7pm, having the gold medal game go until 11pm wouldn't have been very convenient.

I'm not saying that these concerns *should* influence things, but at some point they have to. Like I said, I can understand being against shootouts (though I'm not against them at all) but I can't understand being against sudden death overtime.