Судья дал сигнал, и пенальти решили бить сразу после паузы.

Here it means referee.

In Russian, судья can mean:

• a judge in a court
• a referee / official in sports

The context makes it clear that this is sports language, so судья дал сигнал means the referee gave the signal.

Дать сигнал is a very common Russian expression meaning to give a signal.

Literally:

• дал = gave
• сигнал = signal

So this is very close to English in structure. It is just the normal collocation in Russian.

It actually is the direct object, but with this noun the nominative and accusative forms look the same.

• сигнал is a masculine inanimate noun.
• Masculine inanimate nouns usually have the same form in:
  • nominative singular
  • accusative singular

So in Судья дал сигнал, сигнал is accusative by function, even though the form is unchanged.

Russian often leaves the subject unstated when it is understood from context or when the speaker does not want to name it directly.

Решили is they decided, but in sentences like this it can feel more like:

• it was decided
• they decided (unspecified people)

This is very natural in Russian. The people involved are probably obvious from the context: officials, players, organizers, etc.

Because решить commonly means to decide to do something, and after it Russian often uses an infinitive.

Pattern:

• решить + infinitive

Examples:

• решили бить = decided to take/shoot
• решили уйти = decided to leave
• решили начать = decided to begin

So this part is structurally similar to English decided to...

Yes, бить often means to hit / strike / beat, but in sports it is also used for taking or striking a shot.

So:

• бить пенальти = to take / shoot a penalty
• бить по воротам = to shoot at the goal

This is normal sports usage. In this sentence, бить пенальти means performing the penalty kick, not physically beating something.

Пенальти is an indeclinable loanword, so its form does not change across cases.

Here it is the object of бить, so functionally it is in the accusative, but the form still stays пенальти.

That is why you do not see an ending change.

Both word orders are possible, but they have slightly different emphasis.

• Пенальти решили бить сразу после паузы puts пенальти early, making it the topic or focus of discussion.
• Решили бить пенальти сразу после паузы sounds a little more neutral.

Russian word order is much freer than English word order. Moving пенальти forward helps highlight what exactly was decided.

Because the preposition после requires the genitive case.

• dictionary form: пауза
• genitive singular: паузы

So:

• после паузы = after the pause / break

This is a very important pattern:

• после матча
• после игры
• после перерыва

Сразу после means immediately after or right after.

• сразу = immediately / right away
• после = after

Together:

• сразу после паузы = immediately after the pause

This is a fixed and very common combination in Russian.

Because и here joins two separate clauses, each with its own verb:

1. Судья дал сигнал
2. пенальти решили бить сразу после паузы

In Russian, when и connects two full clauses, a comma is normally used.

Both are past tense forms describing completed actions in the narrative.

• дал is past masculine singular of дать

  • perfective
  • it presents the signal as a completed act

• решили is past plural of решить

  • perfective
  • it presents the decision as something reached/completed

So both verbs move the story forward as completed events:

• the referee gave the signal
• a decision was made

After решить, Russian can use either imperfective or perfective depending on nuance.

Here бить пенальти is a standard sports expression and sounds natural when referring to the action in general: to take the penalty.

A perfective verb such as пробить would emphasize a more single, completed execution of the kick. That can also be possible in some contexts, but бить пенальти is very idiomatic and natural here.

So the sentence uses the common sports phrasing rather than focusing strongly on the kick as one completed instant.