Desde el banquillo, una compañera animaba a la defensa y pedía calma.

In this sentence, el banquillo means the bench in a sports context — the place where the substitute players and staff sit.

A few useful notes:

• banquillo can literally mean a small bench
• in sport, it often means the substitutes’ bench
• desde el banquillo suggests the speaker/player was not on the field/court at that moment

So this is not just any bench; it is specifically the team bench.

Both are possible in Spanish, but they mean slightly different things.

• desde el banquillo = from the bench
  • this focuses on the source of the action or voice
• en el banquillo = on the bench
  • this focuses more on location

In this sentence, desde el banquillo sounds natural because the important idea is that the encouragement and calls for calm were coming from there.

Compañera literally means female companion, female colleague, or female teammate, depending on context.

Here, because of banquillo and defensa, it most likely means:

• a female teammate

It is the feminine form of compañero.

So:

• un compañero = a male teammate / colleague
• una compañera = a female teammate / colleague

Una compañera introduces her as one teammate or a teammate, not a specifically identified one.

Compare:

• una compañera = a teammate
• la compañera = the teammate

Using una suggests that the sentence is not focused on exactly which teammate it was, only that it was one of them.

They are in the imperfect because the sentence describes an action that was:

• ongoing
• repeated
• part of the background of a scene

So animaba and pedía suggest something like:

• she was encouraging
• she was calling for / asking for calm

The imperfect fits very well when describing what was happening during a match or a scene in progress.

If you used the preterite instead:

• animó
• pidió

that would sound more like single, completed actions:

• she encouraged them once
• she asked for calm once

The imperfect makes it feel more continuous and scene-setting.

Here animar means to encourage, to cheer on, or to spur on.

So animaba a la defensa means she was:

• encouraging the defence
• cheering on the defenders

This is a very common meaning of animar in sports.

Be careful: animar does not always mean to animate in the English sense. Very often in everyday Spanish it means:

• to encourage
• to liven up
• to cheer up

That a is required by the verb animar when it refers to the person or group being encouraged.

Structure:

• animar a alguien = to encourage someone

So:

• animaba a la defensa
• animaba al equipo
• animaba a sus compañeras

Even though la defensa is not a single person, it refers to a group of players, so a is natural here.

In a sports context, la defensa usually means:

• the defence
• the defensive line
• the defenders

So it is probably referring to the players whose role was defending.

Spanish often uses singular collective nouns like this where English might use either a singular or plural idea depending on context.

For example:

• la defensa estaba nerviosa = the defence was nervous
• animaba a la defensa = she was encouraging the defenders / the defence

Because pedir calma is a very natural expression meaning:

• to ask for calm
• to call for calm

Spanish often leaves out the article with abstract nouns in expressions like this.

So:

• pedía calma = she was asking for calm
• pedía paciencia = she was asking for patience
• pedía silencio = she was asking for silence

You could sometimes hear pedía la calma in very specific contexts, but here it would sound unnatural. The normal expression is simply pedir calma.

No. It means she was asking others to stay calm or calling for calm.

So the idea is not:

• she was calm

but rather:

• she was telling people to calm down
• she wanted everyone to remain calm

This is an important difference. Pedir calma is about requesting a mood or behaviour from others.

Yes, that would also be possible, but it is slightly different in style.

Compare:

• pedía calma = she was calling for calm
• pedía que se calmaran = she was asking them to calm down

The version in your sentence is:

• shorter
• more compact
• very natural in sports reporting or narration

The que se calmaran version is more explicit because it clearly states that she wanted them to calm down.

Because Spanish often avoids repeating the subject when it is already clear.

Here:

• una compañera animaba... y pedía...

Both verbs clearly refer to the same subject: una compañera.

In English, we often repeat she:

• A teammate was encouraging the defence and was asking for calm.

In Spanish, once the subject is established, it is very normal to continue with more verbs without repeating it.

The comma separates the opening phrase Desde el banquillo from the main clause.

This helps show that Desde el banquillo is setting the scene:

• From the bench, a teammate was encouraging the defence and calling for calm.

It is a very natural punctuation choice when a sentence begins with a location or context phrase.

Without the comma, the sentence would still probably be understandable, but the comma makes it clearer and smoother.

It is quite natural Spanish word order.

The sentence starts with the setting:

• Desde el banquillo

Then it gives the subject:

• una compañera

Then the actions:

• animaba a la defensa
• y pedía calma

This order works well because it first tells you where the action is coming from, which is useful in a sports scene.

A more neutral order like Una compañera, desde el banquillo, animaba... is also possible, but the original sounds very natural and slightly more vivid.