Here, gelykop is describing the state of the teams, so it functions like a predicate adjective after is.
In other words:
In sports contexts, gelykop is a very common word for tied or level.
Because it comes after the verb is.
In Afrikaans, adjectives used after a linking verb like is usually stay in their basic form:
So there is no special plural form here.
A rough English-friendly guide:
A few notes:
So the whole sentence is approximately:
dee SPAN-uh is khuh-LAKE-kop
That is only an approximation, but it is a useful starting point.
Usually, learners should keep die here.
Die spanne is gelykop means the teams are tied, referring to specific teams.
If you say Spanne is gelykop, it sounds more general, unusual, or context-dependent. You might see article-less style in headlines or special kinds of writing, but in normal speech die is the natural choice here.