After a five-year stint with sporadic minutes with Aston Villa, Eric Lichaj’s contract wasn’t renewed at the close of the season. He has now signed with Nottingham Forest of the Football League Championship.

Lichaj made just 32 league appearances with Villa, although he spent a fair amount of time on loan. He notably had success on loan with Leeds United in the Football League Championship in the second part of 2011 and made 17 appearances last season, including nine starts. He also was a starter in four matches of the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup (including the final), although he has yet to make an appearance under Jürgen Klinsmann (mainly due to his spotty club minutes).

Nottingham Forest finished 8th in the Championship last year, missing a playoff appearance by two points. A famously small club with historic success (1979 & 1980 European Cup winners under legendary Brian Clough, they last played in the Premier League in 1999 but have made the promotion playoffs twice in the five years since being promoted from the third tier and will look to challenge again this year. Interestingly (since I don’t follow coaching carousels in the 2nd division of England that closely), Billy Davies returned to the club as head coach in February, less than two years after he was fired in June 2011. Hey Chelsea, Nottingham was bringing back old coaches before it was cool.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t point out that Forest’s stadium, City Ground is located 300 yards (across the River Trent) from their local rivals’ ground, Notts County.

Alas, they have not been in the same division since 1994-95.

Jozy Altidore decided to tie a US record with a goal in his fourth consecutive game as the US wins 1-0 (I nailed my prediction). The US is now 23-0-2 in its last 25 home qualifiers.  Here are the full highlights.

Here is a quick rundown of things you might want to look at before today’s game.

» The game is at 9 PM Eastern on ESPN, WatchESPN and UniMas.

» Honduras is ranked #52 by FIFA and #49 by Elo.

» Here are the official game notes by US Soccer.  Some fun stats from it (as well as a couple from my own research).

The US is unbeaten each of its last 24 World Cup qualifiers on American soil (22-0-2).  The last loss was against Honduras, 3-2, on September 1, 2001 at RFK Stadium.

The US is 12-4-3 all-time against Honduras, although Honduras has won two of the last three meetings.  The US is 9-2-2 against Honduras on American soil.

The US has scored 1+ goal in 18 of the 19 meetings against Honduras, including in each of the last 15 games.  The lone game where the US failed to score was a 0-0 draw, which was won 4-3 in PKs by the US in the 1991 Gold Cup Final.

The US 2-0-0 all-time in the state of Utah, beating Costa Rica in Salt Lake City in 2005 and El Salvador in Sandy in 2009.

With his shutout against Panama, Tim Howard now has 30 in his USMNT career, joining Kasey Keller (47) and Tony Meola (32) as the only American goalkeepers with 30+ clean sheets.  Howard also now has 48 career wins, two shy of joining Keller (53) in the 50-win club.

If Jozy Altidore can score tonight, it will be his fourth consecutive game with a goal, tying a USMNT record done six previous times:  William Looby (1954-55), Eric Wynalda (1996), Brian McBride (2000-01), Eddie Johnson (2004-05), Landon Donovan (2005) and Landon Donovan (2007).

» Graham Zusi can play after sitting out the Panama game due to yellow card accumulation.  DaMarcus Beasley will miss this game due to yellow cards.  Jermaine Jones has also been cleared to play after missing the last game due to a concussion.  The following players are holding a yellow card and would miss a game if they pick one up tonight:  Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Matt Besler, Geoff Cameron, Brad Davis, Clint Dempsey, Brad Evans, Tim Howard and Fabian Johnson.

» US Soccer tweeted out that they will be wearing their white Centennial kit.  They should wear them all the time as they are great in my opinion.  Tonight’s game is also a sellout.

» US Soccer gives us video of the players talking about the two goals from the Panama game and a nice little piece on Nick Rimando.  And here is the latest Road to Brazil video.  And here is a cool photo of Tim Howard showing off his ups with a scenic background.

» Want some game previews?  The fine folks at The Shin Guardian and The Yanks Are Coming have you covered.

» Now for some random links/reading to close this out.  DaMarcus Beasley is staying at Puebla.  Kris Lindsay talked to Matt Besler and Omar Gonzalez about their centerback pairing.  Jon Arnold also spoke to Gonzalez about round two against Honduras.  Brian Sciaretta talked to DeAndre Yedlin about making the US U-20 World Cup roster.  And Sciaretta got confirmation that fellow U-20 teammate Mario Rodriguez will not be at Kaiserslautern next season.  And finally, this is a funny read on some Seattle Times intern from New Zealand who meant to go to a Mariners game and ended up at the US-Panama game.

As for my prediction, the US control the game, but have one of those nights where they can’t seem to score until Jozy Altidore finds the back of the net for the fourth consecutive game in a 1-0 win.

After a 2-0 win over Panama in Seattle, The U.S. Men’s National Team continues on their road to Brazil with another home World Cup Qualifier against Honduras in Sandy, Utah. Hear from: Jurgen Klinsmann, captain Clint Dempsey and Omar Gonzalez on the first half of the Hex and facing Honduras in Rio Tinto Stadium on Tuesday, June 18th.

Preston Zimmerman, who has spent the last two years in the 3. Liga with SV Darmstadt 98 and had reasonable success on a poor team, is apparently stepping away from the game to return to school:

The lilies have to survive next year without Preston Zimmerman, Stefan Hickl and Marcus Steegmann. The trio announced Monday his departure from Böllenfalltor known. Zimmerman attacker wants to end his athletic career with only 24 years and initially after completing his studies to work. ”This decision is not easy for me. I am most grateful for SV 98 and his fans for the wonderful time,” the American said. His strike partner Steeg man rights defenders Hickl and pulled it free to the West division side Viktoria Köln.

Surprised to see another member of the 2007 U-20 squad retire? Think an MLS unretirement happens in three months?

Houston-born Fabian Hürzeler, who has played for the US U-20s, has moved from Bayern Munich’s U-23s to TSG Hoffenheim’s.

Born in Houston / Texas German-Americans played for the U23 FC Bayern Munich and wore the captain’s armband in the U19. In the last season, the 20-year-old for the U23 Bavaria made thirty appearances in the Regionalliga Bayern and scored three times. Hürzeler has signed a two-year contract.

I would guess that he has a more direct route to the first team with Hoffenheim (who narrowly escaped relegation) than he would with Bayern (who are champions of Europe and all). Danny Williams and Fabian Johnson, of course, play with Hoffenheim’s senior team, and Joe Gyau is sort of in U-23/loan purgatory (but at 21 could probably be a teammate to Hürzeler). Hoffenheim also has Russell Canouse and Zach Pfeffer playing with their U-19s, so he has plenty of guys around to help him get in touch with his inner ‘Merican.

Finally had time tonight to go through some of the photos from my recent trip to Seattle and decided to post a few on here.  It was a fun trip.  Hit up after the jump for more.

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The U.S. Men’s National team discusses closing out this group of World Cup qualifying matches, and the expectations they have for Tuesday’s game in Salt Lake City.

Jose Villarreal (LA Galaxy), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids), and Alonso Hernandez (Monterrey) scored in this 3-1 win in the final tuneup  before the U-20 World Cup starts next week.

Here are the highlights:

I did not know until now, but next Friday’s opener against Spain will be on ESPN2 and Univision Deportes (2 PM ET) as will June 24′s 11 AM ET clash with France. The June 27 finale against Ghana (1 PM ET) will be on ESPNU.

Apparently Jurgen Klinsmann felt the need for some more depth at the central midfield spot (or just wanted to reward the Real Salt Lake player since the game is in Utah?) as he has added Kyle Beckerman to the roster.

Granted Jermaine Jones could still be out, but the US already has Michael Bradley, Geoff Cameron, Stuart Holden and Sacha Kljestan among others who can play in the center.

Yay for press releases at 5 PM Eastern on a Friday!