It might have been relief from the locals in the crowd, of course: there has been no little concern here that Russia’s team is so poor that it might do what the revelations of the ongoing FIFA corruption trial in New York and the allegations of widespread state-sponsored doping could not: make Putin regret bringing the World Cup here in the first place.

Still, the applause felt odd, misplaced. By almost any measure, Russia-Saudi Arabia is an anticlimax of an opening game: the weakest, in terms of the rankings of the two teams, in World Cup history. It is not the sort of game that lived up to the absurd, gaudy pomp of the ceremony that preceded it, complete with a traditional Russian dance troupe.

But it is fitting, given how the rest of the draw panned out. For the first time, FIFA had changed the way the World Cup groups were drawn, pooling teams according to their ranking, rather than on a geographical basis. The move’s main effect was to protect most of the tournament favorites from meeting one another.

Indeed, only in two groups are notional heavyweights drawn together: Spain meets Portugal in Group B, while Belgium encounters England in Group G. The prospect of drama in either group, though, was quelled when the identities of their other opponents were revealed. Spain and Portugal will expect to get past Morocco and Iran; England and Belgium should be too strong for Tunisia and Panama, a World Cup debutante. In the head-to-head games, nobody should suffer a knockout blow.