Can more than 50 ESPN soccer experts (minus one) be wrong? Can more than 50 ESPN soccer experts (minus one) be so distracted that they'll be assigned to different functions in the World Cup?
Can more than 50 ESPN soccer specialists (minus one) look contemptuously or barely look out of the corner of their eye, or just not even turn to look at Mexican soccer?
ESPN chose more than 50 analysts to try to highlight the potential best players in Brazil's World Cup.
And on that roll of honor, on that list of the privileged, on that list of the gifted in conceiving dramatic changes with a soccer ball in high competition, not a single Mexican appeared. Not even one.
It's true: Mexico comes to the World Cup as the needy, the disgraced, the intruders, the subordinates. Mexico arrives by way of pity and commiseration of the playoffs, and in that instance it must face Oceania's number one team, but number 111 in the World. Yes, New Zealand.
Earlier, in the final round of CONCACAF qualifying, the same ones who rode so conceited and with the airs of a braggart around the area during 2011 and 2012 became the laughingstock of their neighborhood in 2013.
In 2011 and 2012 they had won the Gold Cup, razed in the first qualifying round. In addition, they had crowned themselves in the U-17 World Cup, they were third in the U-20 World Cup, gold medalists in the London Olympics, and they had been Pan American and Toulon Tournament champions.
But in 2013, the clay knees of the CONCACAF giant crumbled.
Is that enough reason for more than 50 ESPN soccer experts (minus one) not to bother to delve into a Mexican team that came with disrepute on its back among the Brazil 32?
Can so many specialists be wrong? Or doesn't the one who contradicted them deserve to be considered an expert?
Well, to such respectable and revered experts, the fickle, strange, goofy, unintelligible, contradictory and confusing FIFA ranking didn't even arouse at the very least, a scrap of suspicion, doubt, or curiosity in them.
Mexico has remained between the 19th and 21st place in the FIFA catalog, but Mexico didn't manage to sneak in a player from the alleged list of Brazil's World Cup figures.
Not even Gullit Pena? Nor Luis Montes? Nor Miguel Layun? Nor Hector Moreno?
Not even the return of Rafa Marquez, with more European crests than over half of those chosen?
Not even Oribe Peralta, the David who brought the global Goliath, Brazil, to his knees with two shots in an Olympics finale?
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Not even a hope of redemption for a cloistered Chicharito Hernandez?
Would Carlos Vela have changed their decision, a player placed among the top scorers, top passers and one of the players with the highest production of useful points for his team in Spanish soccer, even above Diego Costa, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in global statistics?
Are those chosen by Miguel Herrera so bad that in a universe of 736 players going to represent their countries at Brazil's World Cup, not even one appears among the top 50?
While it's undeniably true that Mexican soccer is still seen as the eternal world soccer adolescent. As is evident, Mexico can win world titles in tournaments with age limits, but not where adults are listed.
But how can anyone forget that Cuauhtemoc Blanco appeared among the top 25 in France 1998, especially for his goal against Belgium and his Cuauhteminha against South Korea.
Or Rafa Marquez in 2002, when he added praise and first places, day-to-day, until he committed savagery on Cobi Jones, going from the palace to the dungeon?
Or 2006's Andres Guardado with his explosive emergence disconcerting Argentina, and a candidate for the revelation of the competition?
Or Chicharito scoring goals in South Africa 2010 and Giovani dos Santos being El Tri's most consistent player with Carlos Salcido and Rafa Marquez?
It's clear that Mexico has been convicted for its failures. Mexico's not been taken seriously. It looks more like an accident, an eventuality, than a guarantee. And that, with the loyalty of the facts, is irrefutable.