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British sailor Iain Percy perhaps summed up Team New Zealand's comprehensive drubbing of Chris Dickson's BMW Oracle Racing best.
"Some people's preconceived ideas were smashed today," the +39 skipper said.
In their final round robin race yesterday Team New Zealand beat Oracle by a comfortable 1m 34s after hooking into a match-winning wind shift early in the first beat.
With plenty of talk lately around Oracle and in particular the speed of USA98, the race went some way to showing the gunmetal-grey boat and the black boat may not be so different after all.
The win meant Team New Zealand won the round robin competition which earned them the right to chose their semifinal opponent.
Not surprisingly they chose home-town heroes Desafio Espanol, the weakest of the three teams, leaving Oracle to battle it out with Italians Luna Rossa.
The semifinals are a best of nine series starting on Monday night (NZT).
After a shaky performance in round one which saw them go from being the top-ranked challenger to the third, Team New Zealand powered through round two unbeaten.
"We had a tough first-round robin and we bounced back with a lot of strength in the second one," Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker said.
"The guys never gave up for a second. We felt we weren't firing on all cylinders in the first round with all the delays. It was nice to get into a good flow during the second round when the breeze was more consistent.
"As a result we put together some good wins. The media can say what they want but we have 100 per cent belief in our team and we are looking forward to getting on to the next stage."
Dickson's team will be ruing their loss to China Team in round two, the result of gear failure. Had they not lost that match then they would have been sitting at the top of the table.
In their race against Team New Zealand Dickson could offer little explanation why his team chose the left and in the process created huge separation between themselves and their rivals.
"The left-hand side of the first beat today wasn't so good," Dickson said.
"The right-hand side was very good and Dean and the guys did a nice job of doing the right thing with what they had on the right-hand side."
For Team New Zealand, BMW Oracle Racing, Luna Rossa and Desafio Espanol there is a four-day break before the semifinals begin. But for seven other teams their America's Cup is over.
"We are going to do everything we can to continue and come back in the next cup with more time and resources," said China Team skipper Pierre Mas.
"One participation would make no sense at all."
The Germans are already looking to the future.
"The most positive thing to come out of this campaign is a sponsor who has had the courage to look at not just one but two campaigns," said United Internet Team Germany skipper Jesper Bank. "I think we now have to lick our wounds and then start looking forward."
A philosophy shared by South Africa's Shosholoza.
"We are not defeated, we are doing this for the next campaign," said the team's syndicate head, Salvatore Sarno. "I hope that we will be able to launch RSA101 by February next year."
Semifinals
May 14-24: Best Of Nine Series
* BMW Oracle v Luna Rossa
* Team NZ v Desafio Espanol
Desafio Espanol
First America's Cup
* Boats: ESP88, ESP97
* Syndicate head: Agustin Zulueta
* Team leader: Luis Doreste
* Designers: John Reichel, Jim Pugh, Scott Graham
* Estimated budget: $110m
* Challenger ranking: 4th
* Sailing crew: Mainly Spaniards with America's Cup or Olympic experience
