Question regarding Olympic Softball.?

Question

Ok, so the USA beats Japan yesterday in the semifinal and then Japan goes and beats Australia to get into the gold medal game. USA has not lost and they have just beaten Japan, yet Japan wins today and gets the Gold? Am I missing something here? Why would Japan not have to win twice? Feel free to e-mail me at [e-mail] if you think your answer needs follow-up. Thanks.

Answer 1

because it was the gold medal game, they picked the 2 best teams and they go into the gold medal game and whoever wins gets the gold. that's why its called the gold medal game :D plus it wasn't double elimination :)

Answer 2

For the Olympics they play pool play. The in the Olympics they do not play double elimination. It is single also know as one and done. It is so stupid, and they should have done double elimination since this is the last Olympics for softball in some time maybe till 2016 (if Chicago gets it).

Answer 3

yeah i think it should be best 2 out of 3 if anything.one team might get lucky and everything and the best team loses.olympics are all screwed up.thats a very good question considering usa did not lose a game.

Answer 4

In baseball and softball you have your good days and then you have your bad days. Plus they may have used different pitchers.  

Answer 5

It is called

the Page System Playoff

http://en.beijing2008.cn/sports/softball...

Answer 6

I didn't watch the gold match but I was shock to them lose.

Answer 7

For everyone that says that how tournaments work, it doesn't fly with me either. It doesn't make sense. I took thought there should be a deciding 3rd game since both teams had 1 loss in elimination play.  I woudn't question this that much if all the other sports use the same format but only softball uses this format.  That's what really bothers me is the inconsistancy.  Other sports do the traditional 1/4 & 2/3 semis and the winners face each other for gold and losers battle for bronze.  In softball it was 1/2 and loser faces winner of 3/4 to play against winner of 1/2.  Congrats to Japan for winning the right game at the right time, but to me, it seems imcomplete.

If the Page System playoff is being used for just softball and has always been used in softball, someone screwed up a long time ago.  Good by softball.

Answer 8

It's a tournament. This is how they work. It's all about who wins the Championship game.

Answer 9

That would be the case if it was a double elimination tournament.  

IOC set it up as a round robin followed by single elimination round. One loss and you are out.......or in this case you get Silver.

Everyone played by the same rules.  They weren't robbed.  They just lost.  (Poor coaching in my opinion)

Answer 10

It's like the New England Patriots this last season.  You win every single game, but none of it matters if you lose the very last one.