Debutant Masilake Phohlongo got the equaliser for Galaxy, in a quick response after Bongani Sam had given Pirates an early lead.
Da Gama is still relatively new at the Rockets and was puzzled when a suggestion was made that they had a lot of time to prepare compared to the Buccaneers as they were not in action over the weekend.
"I'm not even two weeks here and when you say we had time to prepare I find that very difficult but yes we didn't play in the weekend and we still had to prepare, we have to catch up with the fitness," the former Pirates coach told SuperSport TV.
"We have to get other things right, the tactical culture of the team, we have to get that right. Maybe they started faster than us, it might not be that we started slow, they always come for that early goal.
"We were aware of that but I'm very proud of this boys, some of these boys it's the first time they're playing at Orlando Stadium," he said.
"So I'm very pround of them, we did our best. For us it's a learning curve, there's still a long road for us to go trying to get the team right and if you come away to Pirates and you get a point for me I think it's fantastic.
"They are a playing team, we also try to play from the back. Pirates is a big team there's no doubt about that, they've got quality, some exceptional players and sometimes it that individual brilliance that allows certain actions in the game," he went on.
"But I'm still proud of the boys, they've worked very hard, they are trying to approach the game from a professional point of view, all I'm pleased with is the structure within the team.
"They are playing with structure, discipline, we just need to take it notch up but we'll get there. It's a process. We'll get where we want to get. I'm just happy they're responding quite early and hopefully we can just get better and better."