“The heat affected us,” Itumeleng Khune admitted after the Soweto Derby. It was scorching hot at the FNB Stadium on Saturday afternoon, with the match having kicked off at 15:30. Because of the heat, there was even a water break for the teams in both halves. The Absa Premiership match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates finished in a goalless draw.

“We usually play at night,” the Amakhosi captain added, “only seldom during the day. The pace at which we wanted to move the ball around should have been much faster. However, the high temperatures made that nearly impossible. Both teams didn’t play at their best as a result of the immense heat.”

Khune was happy about keeping another clean sheet: “Every goalkeeper wants a clean sheet. However, credit must also go to our defence.”

The 29-year-old furthermore said that “both teams came up with their tactical battle plans. There were box entries, but both defences did well.”

Coach Steve Komphela agreed with his goalkeeper about the box entries: “We tried to play a constructive game, but we struggled to get behind Pirates’ defence. Still, I feel we had the edge when it came to chances. With matches of this calibre, it’s often that you score a goal and you get a result.”

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, despite both sides shooting 18 times at goal. However, only four of these attempts hit the target.

The best chances for Chiefs came for Michelle Katsvairo (in the first half) and Hendrick Ekstein in the second half (both missed the target), while Siphiwe Tshabalala’s powerful drive from long distance was excellently saved by the Pirates goalkeeper.

Komphela also saw a few positives coming out of the game, the most important one was Keagan Buchanan’s first start: “Keagan showed during training that he was ready and when a player is ready you don’t look at the opponent. I thought, ‘Derby or not, I will throw him in and we will see what happens.’ Keagan did well and he can only grow from here and get better.”

It was the midfielder’s first start in an official match wearing the Gold and Black jersey, although Buchanan made his debut a week earlier when coming on as a substitute during the Telkom Knockout Last 16 game against Maritzburg United.

After having played seven league matches, Amakhosi top the Absa Premiership log with 14 games from 7 matches.

Chiefs next host Baroka FC in an Absa Premiership fixture at home-away-from-home at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium on Wednesday, 2 November (kick-off is at 19:30).