אחרי השריקה היה תיקו, אז התחילה הארכה.

אחרי means after.

In this sentence, אחרי השריקה means after the whistle or after the whistle was blown.

A few useful notes:

• אחרי is a very common preposition in Hebrew.
• It is followed directly by a noun phrase:
  • אחרי המשחק = after the game
  • אחרי הארוחה = after the meal

A slightly more formal alternative is לאחר, which also means after.

השריקה means the whistle or the whistle blast.

It comes from the noun שריקה, which means whistling / a whistle sound.
The ה־ at the beginning is the definite article, so:

• שריקה = a whistle / whistling
• השריקה = the whistle

In a sports context, השריקה usually refers to the referee’s whistle.

Both word orders can exist in Hebrew, but היה תיקו is very natural here.

Hebrew often puts the verb before the subject, especially:

• after an opening time phrase like אחרי השריקה
• in narrative style
• when introducing a situation or result

So:

• אחרי השריקה היה תיקו = After the whistle, it was a tie / there was a tie

This sounds smoother and more idiomatic than אחרי השריקה תיקו היה, which would sound marked or unusual in normal speech.

Because תיקו is treated as a masculine singular noun.

So the verb agrees with תיקו:

• היה תיקו = it was a tie

Compare:

• היה משחק = there was a game
• הייתה בעיה = there was a problem

Since בעיה is feminine, the verb is הייתה.
Since תיקו is masculine, the verb is היה.

Yes. In modern Hebrew, תיקו is a noun meaning tie, draw, or deadlock, especially in sports.

Examples:

• נגמר בתיקו = it ended in a draw
• היה תיקו = it was tied / there was a tie

Even though it may feel a little unusual to English speakers, in Hebrew it behaves like a normal singular noun, and here it takes masculine singular agreement.

Here אז is best understood as so or then.

It links the two parts of the sentence:

• אחרי השריקה היה תיקו = after the whistle, it was a tie
• אז התחילה הארכה = so extra time began

Depending on context, אז can mean:

• then = at that point
• so = therefore / as a result

In this sentence, both ideas are present: there was a tie, so then extra time started.

Because הארכה is a feminine singular noun, so the verb must also be feminine singular:

• התחילה הארכה = extra time began

Here:

• התחילה = she/it began, feminine singular past
• הארכה = the extra time / the overtime period

So the agreement is:

• feminine subject → התחילה
• masculine subject → התחיל

For example:

• התחיל המשחק = the game began
• התחילה הארכה = extra time began

In sports, הארכה means extra time or overtime.

The basic noun הארכה can also mean extension in other contexts, but in a sentence about a tied score after the whistle, it clearly means the additional playing period.

So in sports:

• הארכה = extra time / overtime

This is another common Hebrew word order pattern.

Hebrew often uses verb + subject in past-tense narration, especially when moving the story forward:

• התחילה הארכה = extra time began

This is very natural in Hebrew and often sounds more flowing than putting the subject first.

Compare:

• הארכה התחילה = the extra time began
  This is possible, but it can sound a bit more marked or more focused on the extra time itself.

So התחילה הארכה is the natural narrative order here.

Yes, that is a very good literal translation.

A close breakdown is:

• אחרי השריקה = after the whistle
• היה תיקו = there was a tie / it was tied
• אז = so / then
• התחילה הארכה = extra time began / overtime started

Depending on natural English style, you could translate it as:

• After the whistle, the score was tied, so extra time began.
• After the whistle, it was a draw, so overtime started.
• After the whistle there was a tie, so extra time began.

By itself, אחרי השריקה just means after the whistle. It does not explicitly say final whistle.

However, context matters. In a sports sentence like this, it will often be understood as the whistle marking the end of regular time, because that is what leads to הארכה.

If Hebrew wanted to be more explicit, it could say something like:

• אחרי שריקת הסיום = after the final whistle

So the sentence as written relies on context rather than spelling that out directly.