By Craig Forde, Globe Correspondent

The New England Revolution announced Friday the team has picked up the options on 15 players for the 2013 season, including veteran goalkeeper Matt Reis, who served as team captain for most of the second half of the 2012 season, and 17-year-old forward Diego Fagundez from Leominster.

The Revs declined options on four players; keeper Tim Murray and midfielders Fernando Cardenas, Blair Gavin, and fan favorite Benny Feilhaber, who last season had his own bobblehead giveaway at Gillette.

“After every season, we have to take a hard look at our roster and make some difficult decisions, both for personnel and salary budget considerations,” said Revolution general manager Michael Burns via a press release. “In our case, we’ll continue discussions with some of the players we declined options on to see if the potential exists for them to return to the club next year. We have retained a core group of players for next season and we’ll continue strengthening the team this off-season.”

Already under contract for next season were forward Jerry Bengtson, defender Tyler Polak, and midfielders Kelyn Rowe, Kalifa Cisse, and Andy Dorman, bringing the current roster total for next season to 20 players.

The rest of the returning players are keeper Bobby Shuttleworth; defenders Kevin Alston, Darrius Barnes, Stephen McCarthy, A.J. Soares, and Chris Tierney; midfielders Ryan Guy, Lee Nguyen, Sainey Nyassi, Clyde Simms, and Juan Toja; and forwards Dimitry Imbongo and Saer Sene.

The Revolution also decided to part ways with reserve coach and former MLS player David Vaudreuil.

In other Revolution news:

• Lee Nguyen was a finalist for Major League Soccer goal of the year, but the award went to Seattle's Patrick Ianni.


• The Revolution has a holiday ticket deal in progress that allows holiday gift pack purchasers to select seats ahead of the general public and receive other perks.

Note to readers: Beginning today and continuing throughout the Major League Soccer season, New England Revolution defenseman AJ Soares will be a guest contributor to Corner Kicks. This is his first entry.

By AJ Soares, Boston.com contributor

Hello New England! I am AJ Soares, a new player, or employee as I tell people, at the New England Revolution. I am from California in general, San Diego to the Bay, and I will punish a California burrito, or a good plate of Buffalo wings. More importantly for my job as a soccer player, and more specifically as a center defender, I like to slide tackle, hit, and make big stops on attacking players. I think of myself as a free safety out there on the field.

How did I get here to the snowy banks of Boston? Well, Steve Nicol and the staff here at the New England Revolution picked me at No. 6 overall in the 2011 Major League Soccer SuperDraft. Of course, the first question that people ask is, will I be able to handle moving from California to Massachusetts? And the answer is, of course I will. The cold? I like it. The distance from home? I embrace it. And the Dunkin’ Donuts coffee? I love it. And the truth is, my brother lived in Boston for five years, so I know this is a place that will be my home as soon as I get settled in. In fact, the people here in New England have been so great that the transition has been easy.

The hardest thing so far was day one with my new car, shoveling the snow and scraping the windshield so I could get to training on time. And, even though I’ve been told hundreds of times via Twitter that I will soon get sick of this, I actually didn’t mind it at all.

So, if you want to give me the inside scoop on my new home, or hear how much I’m liking the new spot, follow @AjSoares on Twitter, and check back in here for my next post. It’s time for me to dip out, ice bath, and get ready to get to work again tomorrow with the team. I’m looking forward to an awesome season in the great sporting region, New England.