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Four draws in a row doesn't sound like it should have been great craic - and yet Monday's action continued to deliver.
Over the course of the day we saw a genuine World Cup shock, four comebacks from behind, and plenty of compelling action.
Here's all the big talking points from day five of the 2026 World Cup
Cape Verde delight the world with Spain upset
We have to start with Cape Verde, the tournament debutants who were among the lowest-ranking teams at the competition, but pulled off an incredible upset by holding European champions Spain to a goalless draw.
It was no less than the archipelago nation with a population of less than half a million inhabitants deserved. A side drawn mostly from lower tiers and less glamorous leagues around the world put on a defensive masterclass that the very biggest sides would be proud of.
Curacao had shown the previous day just how difficult that can be, and Cape Verde deserve all the credit in the world for pulling off the biggest result in their history. There is nothing we could write that would say it better than the image of 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha weeping with joy on the final whistle.
Through Spanish eyes, though, it will have been a troubling watch. Luis de la Fuente's world number ones started the game looking complacent, were visibly frustrated well before half time, and looked more and more desperate as the game went on. It was just like watching Roy Hodgson's England at their listless, uninspired worst.
Spain know from experience that they still have plenty of time to put this behind them: they lost their opening game 1-0 to Switzerland in 2010, after all, before winning every one of their remaining games to lift the trophy for the first time. But they will also been very keenly aware that they have to do better than this.
Their main solace is that they were missing both of their most potent attacking threats from the starting line-up after they finished last season with hamstring injuries: Lamine Yamal only made it on for the final 20 minutes and Nico Williams only getting on in the 87th minute. On this evidence, getting them both fit enough to start games asap will be absolutely vital.
Hydration breaks debate is unlikely to go away
Belgium 1-1 Egypt may have been one of the most 'stick to the script' games of the entire World Cup so far - so much so that the big talking point to come out of it was the timing of the second half water break.
Unlike the BBC pundits who railed that the need for water breaks should be treated on a game-by-game basis, we need to acknowledge that it was incredibly hot in Seattle. A general heat advisory was in effect in the area on Monday, with temperatures hitting 32 degrees Celsius during the match. Yes lads, we think the stoppages probably were necessary in this one.
But there is a wider point to be made nonetheless. The complaint, in particular, was the timing of the stoppage in this game, and just how long those breaks are taking.
Play was brought to a halt less than two minutes after Mohamed Hany's own goal restored parity for Belgium following Emam Ashour's first-half opener. That led to unanimous agreement from Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud and Micah Richards that an enforced three-minute stoppage so soon after any goal - especially an equaliser - is prone to killing the momentum of a game.
We don't think it's too cynical to say that there is practically zero chance of FIFA stopping the drinks breaks even when temperatures are low enough to remove the need, as Graham Potter, Virgil van Dijk, and plenty of others have suggested. Those three-minute breaks give broadcasters abroad (thankfully not those in the UK, so far) the opportunity to cut to a lucrative ad break, after all.
But surely there can be at least a little bit of sense brought to proceedings. Our suggestion: instead of timing it to exactly midway through the half, set it at a maximum of 25 minutes into the half, and take the opportunity of any significant natural stoppage in play that occurs in the preceding five minutes.
In this case, that goal would have qualified, but injuries and substitutions any time between minutes 20-25 or 65-70 would also suffice.
Bielsaball remains elusive for Uruguay but point still rescued against Saudi Arabia
Tactics-heads and Leeds United fans will have had Marcelo Bielsa's Uruguay right up there among the teams they were most looking forward to watching this summer.
The iconic manager's reputation for innovation, intensity and unconventional tactics is well-earned, and can be enormously successful when executed with enough energy and precision.
Those are not words you could possibly associate with what Uruguay showed the world in the first half against Saudi Arabia. ITV pundit Instead, Karen Carney found exactly the right phrase at half time: "They were rubbish."
By the time Abdulelah Al-Amri found the net four minutes before the break, it had been coming for some time, and the unfortunate thing for Bielsa is that this is nothing new.
The manager was under pressure in the months leading up to the tournament, with his side's recurrent inability to find the net coming as a justifiable source of frustration. They had drawn a blank in nine of their 15 games since reaching the semi-finals of the Copa America in summer 2024.
Things went up a gear in the second half, but Uruguay may now have missed the chance to exploit Spain's slip-up and secure themselves a more favourite draw in the knockouts - if they even make it there.
Saudi Arabia may be a bit more encouraged that Group H remains wide open, though, as they look to get out of the group stage for the first time since their maiden appearance in 1994.
Iran and New Zealand exemplify what has made this World Cup so compelling
Our various group chats with mates over the opening few days of the tournament couldn't quite decide whether this World Cup has so far been brilliant, rubbish, or something in between. Every point on that spectrum received at least some representation.
We think that most people would now be pretty firmly on the 'good' end, though - and the way things are shaping up, it could get even better.
Iran vs New Zealand was a great example of why that is. Both sides brought goals and entertainment to Los Angeles to ensure that, for 90 minutes at least, we were talking about matters on the pitch rather than off it.
New Zealand went ahead twice, only for Iran to peg them back both times and end up sharing a 2-2 draw.
That makes Group G one of three groups that are all square after the first set of group games, trying to predict which two or three teams will be going through to the knockouts currently looks impossible almost across the board.
The only group that currently requires a shock result to change an obvious trajectory is Group E, where Germany and the Ivory Coast have given Ecuador and Curacao a real uphill battle to stop them from waltzing into the next round.
But all of the others are genuinely anyone's guess. You can't count out a Czech comeback in Group A, or Turkey in Group D, despite them being three points behind the top two. Scotland currently top a group also containing Morocco and Brazil, while Sweden hold the advantage over Japan and the Netherlands.
With the stakes getting clearer with every new round of games, we have an absolute tonne to look forward to.
