Po tej karze kibice zaczęli krzyczeć na sędziego.

It means After that penalty, the fans started shouting at the referee.

Depending on context, kara can mean penalty or punishment. In a sports context, penalty is often the most natural translation.

Here po means after.

So:

• po tej karze = after that penalty / after that punishment

A very important grammar point is that po usually takes the locative case in Polish, which is why you get karze, not kara.

Because po requires the locative case.

The basic form is:

• ta kara = that penalty / punishment

But after po, both words change:

• ta → tej
• kara → karze

So:

• po tej karze = after that penalty

This is a common pattern in Polish: the preposition controls the case of the noun phrase after it.

Karze is in the locative singular.

The noun is:

• kara = penalty, punishment

Its locative singular form is:

• (o / po) karze

So in this sentence:

• po tej karze

both tej and karze are locative singular feminine.

Kibice means fans or supporters.

Its singular form is:

• kibic = fan, supporter

So:

• kibic = one fan
• kibice = fans

In this sentence, kibice is the subject, so it is in the nominative plural.

Zaczęli is the past tense, masculine-personal plural form of zacząć (to begin / to start).

It agrees with kibice, because kibice refers to people, and in Polish groups of men or mixed groups usually take masculine-personal plural agreement.

So:

• kibice zaczęli = the fans started

If the subject were a non-masculine-personal plural group, the form would be different, for example zaczęły.

Because zacząć is the perfective verb, and it is very natural when talking about the moment something began.

Compare:

• zacząć = to start / to begin as a completed event
• zaczynać = to be starting / to start in an imperfective, more process-oriented sense

In this sentence, the speaker is describing a specific event in the past:

• the fans started shouting

So zaczęli krzyczeć is the normal choice.

In Polish, krzyczeć na kogoś means to shout at someone.

So this is a fixed and very common pattern:

• krzyczeć na kogoś = to shout at someone
• krzyczeć do kogoś = to shout to someone, call out to someone

That means:

• krzyczeć na sędziego = to shout at the referee

The preposition na here expresses the target of the anger or shouting.

Because na in the pattern krzyczeć na kogoś takes the accusative case, and sędzia changes to sędziego in the accusative.

The basic form is:

• sędzia = referee, judge

But after na in this meaning:

• na sędziego = at the referee

This form may look surprising because sędzia ends in -a, but it is actually a masculine animate noun, and masculine animate nouns often have accusative forms that look like the genitive.

It is masculine, even though it ends in -a.

This is one of those Polish nouns that refer to male people but have an -a ending, for example:

• sędzia = referee, judge
• mężczyzna = man

So even though sędzia looks feminine at first glance, it behaves grammatically as a masculine animate noun.

That is why you get forms like:

• nominative: sędzia
• accusative: sędziego

Yes. Kara can mean:

• punishment
• penalty
• sanction

The exact translation depends on context.

In a football or sports context, po tej karze could refer to something like:

• a penalty decision
• a card
• a punishment imposed by the referee or officials

So if the sentence appears in a sports story, penalty is often a good choice, but punishment may fit in other contexts.

After zaczęli, krzyczeć is an infinitive.

This is a very common Polish structure:

• zacząć + infinitive = to start doing something

For example:

• zaczął biegać = he started running
• zaczęli śpiewać = they started singing
• zaczęli krzyczeć = they started shouting

So zaczęli krzyczeć works just like started shouting in English.

Yes, Polish word order is fairly flexible, although the neutral order here is very natural:

• Po tej karze kibice zaczęli krzyczeć na sędziego.

This order sets the scene first:

• Po tej karze = after that penalty

and then gives the main action:

• kibice zaczęli krzyczeć na sędziego

You could change the order for emphasis, for example:

• Kibice zaczęli krzyczeć na sędziego po tej karze.

That is still understandable, but the original sounds more natural if you want to emphasize what happened after that event.

A helpful breakdown is:

• Po = after
• tej = that
• karze = penalty / punishment (locative singular)
• kibice = fans
• zaczęli = started
• krzyczeć = to shout
• na = at
• sędziego = referee (accusative)

So literally, it is something like:

• After that penalty, fans started to shout at the referee.

That kind of breakdown is often useful because you can see exactly where Polish case changes happen.