Houve empate; portanto jogámos outra ronda.

Houve is the pretérito perfeito form of haver. In this sentence, haver means to exist / to occur, so houve is the past form used for situations like there was or there occurred.

This use of haver is impersonal, so it normally stays in the 3rd person singular.

Examples:

• Houve um problema.
• Houve dúvidas.
• Houve dois empates.

In standard European Portuguese, haver is the normal verb for there is / there are / there was / there were, especially in writing and careful speech.

So houve empate sounds standard and natural in Portugal.

You may hear ter used this way in other varieties, especially in Brazilian Portuguese, but for Portugal, haver is the safer choice.

Portuguese often leaves out the article in short, report-like statements about events or results.

So houve empate sounds compact and natural.

You can also say houve um empate, and that is correct too. The version without the article feels a bit more neutral and result-focused; the version with um presents it more clearly as one countable event.

Because the sentence describes completed events in sequence:

1. first, the tie happened;
2. as a result, another round was played.

That is exactly the kind of context where Portuguese normally uses the pretérito perfeito.

If you used havia or jogávamos, the meaning would change:

• havia would sound more like background description or an ongoing situation;
• jogávamos would sound habitual, ongoing, or descriptive rather than a finished action.

Portanto is a connector of consequence. It means something like therefore, so, or consequently.

It is completely normal Portuguese, but it can sound a bit more structured or formal than por isso, which is also very common.

So these are both natural:

• Houve empate; portanto jogámos outra ronda.
• Houve empate, por isso jogámos outra ronda.

The semicolon links two complete clauses that are closely connected in meaning.

Here, the first clause gives the situation, and the second gives the consequence. A semicolon is a neat, fairly formal punctuation choice for that.

Other possibilities:

• Houve empate. Portanto, jogámos outra ronda.
• Houve empate, por isso jogámos outra ronda.

So the semicolon is not the only option, but it is a good written choice.

Jogámos is the we form of the simple past of jogar.

In European Portuguese, the accent is often written to help distinguish the past form jogámos from the present form jogamos.

In practice, in Portugal, jogámos is very common when the writer wants to make the past meaning clear immediately.

Because Portuguese often omits subject pronouns when the verb ending already makes the subject clear.

The ending -ámos already tells you the subject is we, so nós is unnecessary.

You would add nós mainly for emphasis, contrast, or clarity:

• Eles saíram, mas nós jogámos outra ronda.

Here ronda means a round in a game, contest, or similar activity.

In European Portuguese, ronda is a natural word in this kind of context.

Be careful, though: ronda can also mean a patrol in other contexts, so the exact meaning depends on the situation.

Usually, for European Portuguese, ronda is the better choice here.

Rodada is much more strongly associated with Brazilian usage, especially in sports and competition contexts. In Portugal, it can sound less idiomatic or simply not like the word a native speaker would normally choose in this sentence.

Yes, absolutely.

There is a small difference in focus:

• Houve empate presents the tie more as the result/situation.
• Empatámos presents it more directly as what we did.

Both are natural. The original sentence sounds slightly more neutral and report-like.

No. With impersonal haver meaning to exist / to happen, the verb stays singular in standard Portuguese.

So you would say:

• Houve problemas.
• Houve vários empates.

Not houveram problemas in careful standard usage.

Both are possible.

• Outra ronda means an additional round in a neutral way.
• Mais uma ronda can sound a little more explicit or emphatic, closer to one more round.

So the original sentence is perfectly natural, and mais uma ronda would just be a slightly different stylistic choice.