New York City FC defender Gudmundur Thorarinsson put it bluntly after the team suffered a 2-0 defeat at Chicago Fire FC Wednesday.

“It is really difficult at the moment,” he said. “It is very hard for me personally to sum it up right now because we’ve obviously just come from what is arguably our worst game this season.

“I think for 90 minutes we were not ourselves. The way I look at it and the way I hope we can all look at this is that this came at the perfect time. Now it’s all about bouncing back. How we do that is how the boss said after the game. We need to find joy in the game because today it seemed like we were a little bit stressed. … We took our time on every set piece and every free kick we seemed like we weren’t on top of things. It’s a shame but I’m going to look at this in the way that it came at the perfect time because now we have seven games left to make it to the playoffs. I feel like we can only bounce back from this.”

Needless to say, head coach Ronny Deila was not happy with his team’s performance in Bridgeview, Ill.

“The performance was not good enough,” he said. “Based on what we have seen from ourselves for a long time shows we have been much better before. It is my responsibility to get the boys up and perform at their best because I know this team is a top [team]. We have so many good football players here but right now we don’t perform at the level we want to.

“I think everybody wants a bit too much and we are overthinking a bit. We look a bit like diesel motors instead of gasoline. We always come a bit late to situations. We are worried about the ball, and a bit too slow. There isn’t much to evaluate. This is more about a mental block in a positive way. We need to start thinking about going out there and showing ourselves instead of thinking that we have to do something. I think that’s the biggest thing here.”

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.