After all the drama which saw BMW Oracle eliminated from the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the formidable Luna Rossa advanced to the final following a 5-1 thrashing of the Americans.

Oracle had all cards in order... a budget of $150 million, design experts, top sailing talent and years and years of preparation in which they excelled.

One wonders how Oracle found themselves swept easily aside by a much stronger Luna Rossa crew who surprised, probably, even those on board the Italian boat.

Surely, the Oracle syndicate never imagined that being such a hot favourite for the America's Cup, never mind winning the LVC, they could succumb so easily in the semis.

Experienced skipper Chris Dickson was no match for 27-year-old Australian helmsman James Spithill. Oracle always started poorly, never succeeded in rounding any mark first in the whole best-of-nine series.

Moreover, last Saturday's penalties in the pre-start were probably the lowest point Oracle ever got into. No wonder, Dickson was booted by Larry Ellison, the sixth richest man in the world.

However, Dickson's substitutes - Gavin Brady and Sten Mohr (already a failure against China Team) - never really got into it either in the last race, and, like their predecessor, had to be content with watching Luna Rossa being ahead of them, once again, all the way.

What boggles the mind is that Dickson and the other top men in the Oracle team still said that they did nothing wrong. In their comments to the press, they said that the only thing they missed doing was winning when it mattered most!

Such reasoning needs no further comments. Probably, that was the Americans' downfall... persisting in their mistakes as they never admitted their faults and corrected them.

More pleasing in answering to any question, Francesco de Angelis, the Luna Rossa skipper, admitted that in Valencia there will be no 'siesta' for his team. The Italian Challenge is on.

A month ago there were 11 challengers... soon it will be only two.