Team New Zealand won the right to choose their semifinal opponent by beating BMW Oracle today. Photo / Chris Cameron, ETNZ
Team New Zealand today chose Spain's Desafio Espanol as their opponents in the America's Cup challengers' yachting semifinals beginning off Valencia next Tuesday (NZT).
Team NZ won the right to pick whom they wanted to face in their best-of-nine-race knockout match after topping the standings in the Louis
Vuitton Cup's round-robin phase.
The other semifinal will be between American syndicate Oracle and Italy's Luna Rossa.
Team NZ skipper Dean Barker said the decision over semifinal opponents was always a tough one.
"We looked at the different teams," he said.
"We've had good racing with the Spanish. They're a fast team, sailing well, and we're looking forward to racing them in the semifinals."
Team NZ won their round-robin encounters with Desafio by comfortable margins of one minute, 12sec and 43sec.
The New Zealanders are due to have the next two days off, before going back out on the water sailing both NZL92, which they have used in all their races so far, and NZL84.
Desafio, who have lost their last three races, are the bottom qualifiers for the semifinals and skipper Karol Jablonski said they were looking at changes to their boat and game plan.
But he was realistic about their chances of producing an upset given the time frame.
"We are working on a few specific things to make the boat a bit faster and also on our strategy," he said.
"But what you haven't done in 2-1/2 years, you're not going to do in the next two days."
- NZPA
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