Ronny Deila: “We don’t get what we deserved in the end.” (Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports)

The most frustrated man at Lower.com Field in Columbus, Ohio Saturday night?

Easy.

It had to be New York City FC head coach Ronny Deila.

He felt his team outplayed the Columbus Crew and deserved to win the MLS match. Instead, City dropped a 2-1 decision in its first visit to the new stadium.

NYCFC (17 points), in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, dropped to 5-5-2 while sixth-place Columbus (20) improved to 5-3-5.

“As a coach you have to try and put yourself in situations that you have a good chance to win the game,” Deila said after his team dropped its second consecutive match. “That means you have to create more than the opponent, keep them away from getting chances and create something yourself. I think we did that very good today. I think the team was playing very good through the game. We don’t get what we deserved in the end. Having said that, it’s happened a lot of times now where we are dominant inside the boxes.”

Domination is one thing, putting away your chances is something else.

Columbus accomplished that twice, NYCFC once.

Three minutes into first-half stoppage time, Darlington Nagbe lifted the hosts into a 1-0 lead.

Jesus Medina equalized two minutes into the second half for the visitors, but Lucas Zelarayan connected for the game-winner in the 62nd minute.

Deila wasn’t finished expressing his frustration.

:We need to believe in what we’re doing,” he said. “This is the way forward to be a top team and win trophies. You need to control games on the ball and defend high up on the pitch when you have opportunities to do that. We weren’t effective enough and they were really effective. I feel a little bit sad for the players because we deserved more.

“We’re going play so many games now. It’s keep on believing. Keep on improving the thing we can improve. We know what that is. The small things inside the boxes. Keep on being disciplined and organized, like we were today.”

Falling short of three points and a win is starting to get to the players.

“It’s tough mentally when you the feeling after every game is that we’re better than them,” defender Anton Tinnerholm. You look at the stats, you look at the expected goals, look at everything. It’s not like we can change anything like we play, but this last thing is missing and it’s really, really frustrating. The best part is now is that it’s a new game on Wednesday and we want some revenge on Montreal. It’s a lot of games coming up, and we have to bounce back directly.”

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.