England News: Why Roy Hodgson Faces the Toughest Week of His Managerial Career

As the World Cup qualification campaign moves into its renowned business end, Roy Hodgson arguably faces the toughest week of his managerial tenure.

Although England are undefeated and sit somewhat comfortably in second place, the similarities compared to Graham Taylor's men in their ill-fated qualifying group for the 1994 World Cup are uncanny.

Back then, England's penchant for self-destruction resulted in dropped points, which ultimately cost the Three Lions a place in the sizzling USA for the 1994 Finals.

In November 1993, the national team's fate was confirmed and England’s misery was compounded by the fact they conceded the fastest ever goal scored in World Cup history—as Davide Gualtieri netted after eight seconds for minnows San Marino.

Despite England's finishing 7-1 victors on the night, results elsewhere meant the damage incurred earlier in the campaign (most notably two 2-0 away defeats at hands of Norway and Holland) meant they missed out on their first World Cup finals since 1978.

Fast-forward to the present day and the opposition standing between England and Rio next summer seems relatively harmless: Moldova, Ukraine, Montenegro and Poland.

However, by scratching beyond the surface, a resemblance can be found between England’s last doomed World Cup campaign and the present.

After six qualifying games, England sit in an identically comfortable position with three wins and three draws. Alarmingly though, two-thirds of those wins have come against San Marino with the other being an away win in Moldova.

On 6 September, the Moldovans travel to Wembley in what should and must yield three English points. At the same time, eyes will be on Poland as they host Group H leaders Montenegro (who have played a game extra).

Then comes the tricky bit for England—a trip to Kiev four days later. At that stage, the Ukrainians are more than likely to be buoyed by a comfortable victory over San Marino (who also play on 6 September), making the Ukraine versus England match a tasty encounter, to say the least.

Given England’s 1-1 habit against the other top-four sides in Group H, anything other than a win in Kiev would leave qualification hopes for Brazil hanging by a thread. Four teams would effectively do battle over the two available qualifying spots during the last two qualifying games in October (the runner-up would face a play-off in November). 

That said, England hold an advantage by playing their last two games at home, despite the opposition of Montenegro and then Poland.

That final match is likely to reignite the memories of the footballing romantics. Poland's famous draw in 1973 culminated in England's failure to qualify for the 1974 World Cup. This was a major shock considering the Twin Towers had witnessed English football's finest hour only eight years earlier.

New Football Association chairman Greg Dyke told the Daily Mail in August that if England struggled with qualification, it would not necessarily signal the end of Hodgson’s reign. The ex-BBC director-general said:

"

It would be bad news for English football if we didn’t qualify, there’s no doubt about that, but you can recover. There is a European  tournament two years later, and there’s another World Cup four years later. I look back on the times we didn’t qualify in the past and we all thought it was a disaster but we recovered.

"

That's comforting for Hodgson but given the almost certain vilification he would suffer from the press if England fail, the next two games are likely to be his toughest mentally, and hopefully his most rewarding, as England boss to date.