Marc Dos Santos wasn't happy months ago when the Canadian men's national soccer team picked its squad for a friendly against Colombia.

The Ottawa Fury FC coach is even less happy -- not to mention disappointed and perplexed -- with the latest national team roster released ahead of upcoming friendlies against Iceland.

The roster features five unattached veterans -- meaning they aren't under contract to any other club -- and includes others from Major League Soccer (MLS) academies as well as the semi-pro League1 Ontario.

Once again, the team led by Benito Floro has no room from professional players attached to Canadian clubs FC Edmonton or Fury.

And that has Dos Santos worried. Not for his club or his own players -- he's never championed an individual player of his for Team Canada inclusion -- but for the league as a whole.

That's twice the NASL has been mostly overlooked by the national program -- other than Hanson Boakai's selection for the Columbia game -- and gives Dos Santos a sense of deja vu, which is why he didn't immediately wade into the latest controversy.

"I think I was very clear already (and) I don't want to repeat myself," Dos Santos told the Sun Monday from his TD Place office.

"Coaches are very different and every coach has their way of thinking and working," he said. "Maybe why I'm shocked (is) because I'm very different than the coach (Floro) at the moment, but what I have to do is respect him. I have to respect that he thinks he's doing the right things the right way. I'm not in his shoes."

So Dos Santos respects Floro, yes, but doesn't come close to agreeing with the latest round of team selections. Floro has been vocal in the past about MLS being the best option for Canadian players in North America and Dos Santos agrees, to a point.

"MLS is the best league in North America, no doubt, we can't be delusional about it," Dos Santos said. "But the next thing is the NASL is the second-best league in North America and the NASL is better than the third division of Scotland and things like that."

And he's sure about one thing: "What I think is the NASL is better than (an) unattached (player)."

That's what really irks Dos Santos and others who follow the Canadian game. The unattached players. And it should bother everyone because it shouldn't happen that way.

"If you play for the Unattached FC team and you're called, I just think that there's a huge lack of respect towards not the Ottawa Fury, but towards the NASL," Dos Santos said.

The omission is particularly glaring because the upcoming friendlies are perfect opportunities to showcase other professional soccer players playing on this continent. The European season is in full swing so most Canadians over there weren't available while the friendlies also happen at the same time as the CONCACAF U-20 Championship.

So why not explore that depth when options were otherwise so limited? When American coach Jurgen Klinsmann needed to fill a spot in his squad, he went to Minnesota United of the NASL and signed on Miguel Ibarra.

"He's not going to go and get the guy that's unattached that's probably not training well, whose probably not as his best fitness," Dos Santos said of Klinsmann.

Dos Santos, whose Fury side features Canadian talent like defenders Mason Trafford and Drew Beckie along with forwards Carl Haworth and Phil Davies, really just wants to be apart of the conversation. Canada is 1-5-4 under Floro and the country is ranked 112 in the world.

"I respect a person that comes in front of me and says 'Marc, this is a list of your Canadian players, I don't think (they fit)'," he said. "I'm not saying we have a Canadian that should be there. But we have Canadians (that are) attached, we have Canadians that train every day and they play in the second best league in North America."

Dos Santos, who was born in Canada and raised in Portugual, stresses how much he wants Canada to succeed in the sport, so when "there's little things that don't help going forward, I get pissed.

"I'm concerned, I want Canada to do well," he said. "You're talking about that kind of mentality, that kind of philosophy, that has to change if Canada wants to get somewhere."

Twitter: @chrishofley

Canadian men's national team roster for friendlies vs. Iceland