scoring in a 2–0 friendly against Brazil in Rome; Meazza reportedly stated after the match "That Riva is good, he scored a lot of goals against Cyprus and Turkey. Surely my goals were much more important." Riva later surpassed Meazza's record with his 34th international goal in a 2–0 home win in a friendly against Sweden on 29 September 1973, and scored his final and 35th goal for Italy later that year, on 20 October, in a 2–0 home win over Switzerland in a World Cup qualifying match. Despite his initial dominance for Italy, Riva's struggles with injuries subsequently saw him display a series of disappointing performances at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, along with many other members of the Italian squad, which led him to be dropped for the last group game against Poland, which saw Italy eliminated in the first round of the tournament following a 2–1 defeat; he made his 42nd and final appearance for Italy at the age of 29, in Italy's second group match of the tournament, a 1–1 draw against Argentina, on 19 June. Riva is currently still Italy's top-goalscorer of all-time, with 35 goals in just 42 matches, with an average of 0.83 goals per game. In addition to being Italy's all-time leading goalscorer, Riva is also the highest goalscorer in combined goals scored at the FIFA World Cup and FIFA World Cup qualifier matches with 17 goals, and Italy's highest goalscorer in FIFA World Cup qualifiers, with 14 goals. Furthermore, alongside Silvio Piola, he co-holds the national team's record for most goals on opposition soil with 13. After retirement After retiring, Riva remained in Cagliari, and founded the first school of football in Sardinia in 1976, which bears his name. He later became an executive with his former club; he also briefly served as Cagliari's president during the 1986–87 season, but stepped down from this position in December 1986, after only a few months, and was replaced by Lucio Cordeddu. He later served as a director and subsequently as a team managing staff member for the Italy national football team from 1988 until 2013, and was also a member of the technical staff for the Italy national team that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup under his supervision; he drew praise from captain Fabio Cannavaro for his role in Italy's fourth World Cup title victory. On 5 January 2005 Cagliari