El portero paró otro penalti y el marcador siguió a nuestro favor.

and

Breakdown of El portero paró otro penalti y el marcador siguió a nuestro favor.

• otro: other
• seguir: to stay
• parar: to save

Questions & Answers about El portero paró otro penalti y el marcador siguió a nuestro favor.

Why does the sentence use el portero?

Portero is a very common word in Spain for goalkeeper in football.

A native speaker might also use:

• guardameta — a bit more formal or journalistic
• arquero — common in many Latin American countries, but less typical in Spain

So in Spain Spanish, el portero sounds very natural in a football context.

What does paró mean here?

Here paró is the preterite form of parar, and in football it means saved or stopped.

So paró otro penalti means the goalkeeper saved another penalty.

Outside football, parar often means:

• to stop
• to halt
• to bring to a stop

In sports language, though, it is very commonly used for a goalkeeper stopping a shot.

Why is it paró with an accent?

The accent mark shows that this is the third-person singular preterite form of parar:

• yo paré
• tú paraste
• él/ella paró

The accent is important because it helps distinguish the past-tense form and shows the stress falls on the last syllable: pa-RÓ.

Why is the preterite used in paró and siguió instead of the imperfect?