The World Cup continued to produce the unexpected in Arlington. On a throbbingly hot afternoon in the low flat plains outside Dallas the Netherlands and Japan played out an episodically thrilling opening Group F game, Daichi Kamada scoring an 88th-minute equaliser to make it 2-2 just as the Dutch looked like taking an early hold on one of the tougher groups.

Sport does like to spring surprises. As the entire bib-clad Japanese bench emptied on to the pitch to celebrate Kamada’s deflected goal from a corner, it was tempting to wonder if perhaps the unthinkable is happening.

There has been so much talk of tired players, format failure and empty seats (the stadium was full here), talk so feverishly committed you wondered at times if it was necessary to play the games at all. But it does feel as though something else has been taking place in the opening games. Maybe – whisper it – the World Cup is actually good.

This was a lovely spectacle from the start. The Dallas Stadium is a vast concrete spaceship dumped down off the freeway intersection beyond the city limits. Inside it feels like entering an outsized Victorian railway station, the vast glass roof sealed with panelled inserts at both ends, giving it the feel of a vast and humid agricultural shed, the kind of place a giant would grow his tomatoes.

The base colours were beautiful, warm royal blue v deep zingy classic orange. Whatever the state of the team the Netherlands always provide the same irresistible mnemonic, the sounds and colours that send you spiralling back down the tournament time tunnel. Ronald Koeman had hinted that Memphis Depay might be fit. In the event Donyell Malen started in the centre of attack.

Japan have been a very good World Cup team in recent times. Their coach, Hajime Moriyasu, is not mucking about either. Their goal is to win the whole thing this time. They set up with attacking midfielders in the wing-back spots and the back three Moriyasu has tended to use, a note of evolution since Qatar.

The Netherlands took the ball away early on. They really should have scored on three minutes after a fine zipping run from Malen, a grappling turn and a powerful shot that was palmed away by Zion Suzuki. After that the game became a series of wary thrusts in between a steady holding pattern of carefully metered Dutch possession.

Japan had some neat, high pressing flurries. Frenkie de Jong was measured and stately on the ball, a footballer who always seems to be playing inside his own perfectly still pocket of space.

The hydration break brought a kind of deathly drift off to the fringes from both sides, enlivened by the sudden appearance of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders on the world’s largest HD screen above the pitch, literally a 150ft woman dancing with a pompon, the kind of spectacle the human brain struggles to process.

Group F is a tricky looking thing by the standards of this World Cup, with Tunisia and Sweden to come. Hence perhaps the caution of both teams early on. There was little in the way of overloads or midfielders committing to forward runs.

With 34 minutes gone Malen had another good chance, a close-in header direct from a corner that Suzuki batted away low down. At that stage the Dutch were on 67% possession, twice as many passes, and controlling the tempo and geometry of the game. Just not in a way that threatened much incision.

Japan had their best chance just before half-time, a nice little combination down the right flank leading to a cross and shot just wide from Keito Nakamura. Moments later a beautifully weighted pass straight down the middle between the Dutch centre-backs put Ayase Ueda in for a shot into the side netting that had the blue-shirted parts of the stadium gasping and cooing with goal parallax error.

But it was the Netherlands who took the lead five minutes into the second half, Virgil van Dijk steering in a header that trickled in off the far post. Tsuyoshi Watanabe protested that he had been pushed out of the way by Van Dijk, but it looked very soft. Van Dijk pirouetted in front of the Dutch fans, pointing to the name on the back of his shirt.

At that stage Japan looked utterly flat, unable to sustain possession, trapped in their own half. But there was an immediate injection of urgency on the left flank and it was from there that they equalised seven minutes later, a really nice little fizzed combination of passes ending with Nakamura finding just enough space to whip a right-foot shot into the corner via a fine deflection off Jan Paul van Hecke.

Suddenly the game had begun to throb with life, avenues of space opening up at both ends. Crysencio Summerville made it 2-1 on 64 minutes, taking the ball from Ryan Gravenberch, gliding inside and curling a lovely left-footed shot into the far corner. Japan responded as they had to the first goal, by forming a discussion circle in their own half even as the Dutch players were still celebrating, then surging forward again.

The end was high drama. Group F looks wide open now, designed for some kind of as-things-stand late drama. Dallas has now passed its first test as a soccer stadium. For those who prefer their World Cup a little more sullen and sedate: England are here next.