Josh Saunders

Saunders, the younger brother of Shawn Saunders, spent the final two seasons of his collegiate career at Berkeley, after spending the previous two at California State University, Fullerton. He was named a First Team All-Pac-10 selection in each of his two seasons with the Golden Bears, and during his senior season he became the first keeper ever to be named Pac-10 Player of the Year. He has a B.A. in American studies.

After being selected in the fourth round of the 2003 MLS SuperDraft Saunders made the roster of the San Jose Earthquakes, but did not appear in an official match. Instead, Saunders played on loan with the Portland Timbers in the USL First Division, where he played every minute of his 16 games, allowing only 15 goals, giving him a 0.90 GAA for the 2003 season. The next year, he started 24 games and posted a 1.11 GAA with six shutouts. Chief among his feats was a 363-minute scoreless streak, which, until recently, was the longest in Timbers history. Saunders joined Los Angeles Galaxy in 2005 as third-choice keeper behind Kevin Hartman and Steve Cronin, but again failed to appear in a first team game, logged only 15 minutes as a substitute in a game for the Galaxy's reserves. In 2007, Saunders and three other players were waived from the LA Galaxy. Some bloggers suspected this was due to the massive expense of acquiring soccer star David Beckham, and despite a successful pre-season trial with Chicago Fire, signed for the Puerto Rico Islanders for the 2007 season. He made his debut for the Islanders in a 2–1 victory over the Rochester Raging Rhinos on April 14, 2007. On April 11, 2008, Saunders signed with Miami FC, and subsequently made 27 appearances for the Florida team, until he was loaned to Los Angeles Galaxy in September 2008 for the remainder of the MLS season. Saunders signed a permanent contract with Galaxy in early 2009, and was expected to serve as understudy to…

In 2008, Saunders made his debut with the Puerto Rican national team, and is now considered to have Puerto Rican sporting nationality. Prior to his international switch, Saunders made an appearance for the U.S. U-23 national team in 2002 against Canada.

As of 13 November 2016