Minnesota United keep their core together, exercise options on thirteen

Minnesota United put an impressive product on the field during the 2014 season, and after exercising options on 13 of their players Thursday afternoon, there's little reason to believe that much will change in 2015. The club exercised their options on all of Tiago Calvano, Pablo Campos, Justin Davis, Andrew Fontein, Mitch Hildebrandt, Greg Jordan, Brent Kallman, Brian Kallman, Tyler Polak, Christian Ramirez, Kevin Venegas, Juliano Vicentini, and Jamie Watson.

Combined with the recent extensions of Aaron Pitchkolan, Cristiano Dias, and Daniel Mendes along with the multi-year deal Miguel Ibarra is on, United look to be bringing back the bulk of their core intact. The one notable name missing from their current roster is goalkeeper Matt VanOekel, who started the bulk of Minnesota's games between the sticks.

United now have very little work left to do before the 2015 NASL season gets underway, and should have another very strong group when the season kicks off. It will be interesting to see what else the club does this winter.