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Nessuno sta difendendo, tirate adesso!

Nessuno sta difendendo, tirate adesso!
Nobody is defending, shoot now!
From Lesson 120:Informal affirmative commands·Italian

Questions & Answers about Nessuno sta difendendo, tirate adesso!

Who is the speaker yelling at with tirate?
The speaker is addressing a group of people (like a sports team), which is why they use the voi imperative form of tirare. If they were telling just one player to shoot, they would use the tu form: tira adesso!
I thought tirare meant to pull or to throw. Why does it mean shoot here?
You are right that tirare usually means to pull or to throw. However, in sports contexts like soccer or basketball, it is the standard verb used for shooting at the goal or basket.
What verb form is sta difendendo?
This is the present continuous tense, used for actions happening right at this exact moment. It is made by combining the present tense of stare (here as sta) with the gerund form of the main verb, which ends in -ndo (from difendere to difendendo).
Why does nessuno take the singular verb sta?
Just like nobody or no one in English, the pronoun nessuno is treated grammatically as a singular subject. Because of this, it always takes the third-person singular form of the verb rather than a plural form.

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