There have been a number of great hockey teams from outside of North America. The 2006 Turin Olympic champions from Sweden had a Vezina winner, seven Stanley Cup winners, a Norris winner, three Art Ross winners and a Calder winner. The gold medal-winning Czech Republic team at the 1998 Nagano Olympics had two of the greatest players of the era in Jaromir Jagr and Dominik Hasek.With the World Cup of Hockey upon us, its a good time to examine the question of which international team was the best in history. Theres really only one answer: the 1980 Soviet Union team.To be fair, it could be any of the Big Red Machines teams between 1972 and 1984 because there was so little roster turnover, but the 1980 team melded the dominant teams of the 1970s with what would become the dominant teams of the 80s.The 1980 Soviet squad still had the Valeri Kharlamov-Vladimir Petrov-Boris Mikhailov line and other 70s stalwarts such as Helmuts Balderis and Alexander Maltsev. The team also featured Vladimir Krutov, Sergei Makarov, Slava Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov when they were in their early 20s. And the legendary Vladislav Tretiak was in goal.They were close to unbeatable. In fact, it took a miracle to beat them.Al Michaels could not have summed it up better with Do you believe in miracles? New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2014, referring to the United States stunning Miracle on Ice upset of the Soviets in the Lake Placid Olympics. That was absolutely, positively a miracle. Thats what made it so special. Because the Russians were that good.How good? In February 1979, they faced an NHL All-Star team that featured an astounding 20 future Hall of Famers in a three-game series. The Soviets won two of the matchups, including Game 3 at Madison Square Garden in a 6-0 rout.In Eric Zweigs book, Twenty Greatest Hockey Goals, Fetisov said the 1980 team was probably the best team ever put together in the Soviet Union. We never thought of losing, never thought it could happen. Thats why they call it a miracle.The NHLers were the only ones really able to put up a fight. For example, the Finns played 66 games against their eastern neighbor between Jan. 1, 1970, and Dec. 31, 1980. They won two times and tied once.They dominated the game, said Juhani Tamminen, a former Team Finland captain who played in the WHA. Its almost not even up to discussion. In their time, they were superior to everybody else.The Finns had access to Russia, and several coaches made study trips to Moscow. They came back with the same shocking realization.They practiced and trained around 1,200 hours a year, said Alpo Suhonen, former Team Finland head coach and the first NHL head coach from Europe. In Finland, we practiced about a third of that, and the Swedes were about 100 hours ahead of us.They skated three times a day, perfecting both their individual skills and their teamwork. They had their set five-man units so everybody knew what the others were doing.While the Soviet players were thought of as robots because of their advanced tic-tac-toe plays and lack of wild goal celebrations, Suhonen said the foundation laid by Russian hockey coaching pioneer Anatoli Tarasov was based on creativity and getting the puck into an empty space.The thing that Viktor Tikhonov added when he became the head coach was military discipline, Suhonen said of the coach who took over the Soviet national team in 1977.Tarasov, known as the father of Russian hockey, had to be creative when launching the Soviet system after World War II. He looked to the arts -- theater and ballet, for example -- and to other sports, such as a game played on ice called bandy, to create a unique style.They arrived in the international stage with a completely new way of playing hockey, which changed the sport, said Leif Boork, head coach of the Swedish team that reached the Canada Cup final in 1984. And, as Tarasov liked to say, a copy is never as good as the original.In the Soviet Union, it was also easy to draft the right players to the Red Army team -- draft being the operative word -- that was the core of the national team.They were together for 11 months of the year, Boork said, and I remember seeing the players rush out of the Luzhniki Palace of Sports, the famous hockey arena in Moscow, and into the park just outside to meet with their family and friends quickly because it was time to leave again.Hakan Sodergren, a former Team Sweden forward, estimated that the Soviets were a generation more developed than the competition.They were so far ahead of us both physically and medically, he said. They were skilled, strong. They were individually excellent and played together as a team. And they had a great goalie in Vladislav Tretiak.In short, the Soviet way consisted of pooling the best talent into one team, practicing three times as much as the nearest competitor and working year-round.They were the best team, even at the 1980 Olympics, Tamminen said. They just happened to lose at the wrong time.It happens. Scarpe Jordan Uomo Saldi . PAUL, Minn. Scarpe Jordan a Poco Prezzo . -- Arizona knocked off some quality opponents, rolled over a few overmatched ones and grinded out victories even when things didnt go so well. http://www.airjordanscontate.it/ . -- The Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake played to a 0-0 tie Saturday night that left the top of the Western Conference standings unchanged. Scarpe Jordan Uomo Scontate .J. Jefferson has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend. Scarpe Jordan Ingrosso .S. Open champion Justin Rose birdied the first hole with a blind shot he hit to a foot of the pin, and he stayed in front Tuesday until he completed a 4-under 67 for a two-shot lead over Jason Dufner in PGA Grand Slam of Golf. CHICAGO -- Baltimore is hoping Wade Miley can turn his solid July into a big finish with the AL East leaders.The Orioles acquired Miley in a trade with the Seattle Mariners on Sunday, giving manager Buck Showalter an experienced lefty for his rotation as the team tries to hold off Toronto and Boston for the division title.Wade Miley is a workhorse veteran left-handed starter who likes to pitch and compete, said Dan Duquette, the executive vice president of baseball operations for the Orioles. We think he will contribute to this years club with some quality innings.Miley is 7-8 with a 4.98 ERA, but he had a 3.45 ERA in five July starts. He pitched seven innings of one-hit ball in Seattles 4-1 victory against the major league-leading Chicago Cubs on Saturday.He was probably as good as he has been all year, Seattle manager Scott Servais said after Saturdays win at Wrigley Field. He kind of brought a different attitude, mentality, whatever you want to say to the mound today. He was very aggressive from the get-go.Miley was shagging fly balls before Sundays game against Chicago when he left the field while Seattle continued taking batting practice. Servais soon followed him into the dugout.Seattle received left-hander Ariel Miranda in the trade. The Cuban pitcher has spent most of the year with Triple-A Norfolk. Hee appeared in one game for Baltimore on July 3 at Seattle, allowing three runs and four hits in two innings.ddddddddddddAriel Miranda is a power left-handed pitcher with a four-pitch mix that is major league ready that provides us with flexibility, general manager Jerry Dipoto said in an email. We are very excited for what he can bring to the Mariners.The 29-year-old Miley was selected by Arizona with the 43rd pick in the 2008 amateur draft and made his major league debut with the Diamondbacks in 2011. He is 56-54 with a 4.07 ERA in six years in the majors.Miley went 11-11 with a 4.46 ERA in 32 starts with Boston last year, and then was traded to Seattle in December.We are glad that Wade can go from one team in playoff contention to another, and to a division that he has had success in during his career, Dipoto said. This decision is the best move for the Mariners present and future.Miley is making $6 million this season and is owed $8.75 million in 2017. His contract includes a $12 million club option for 2018 with a $500,000 buyout.---AP freelance writer Mike Cranston in Chicago, AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum in New York and David Ginsburg in Baltimore contributed to this report. 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