Thank God this horrible game has become popular among Americans. Now we don't have to take expensive trips abroad to witness soccer thugs in action.

The thug mentality has now invaded the soccer tournament. Just like we've seen in the past with hockey parents fighting with coaches, little league parents fighting with coaches, now this. Instead of talking, the default way of dealing with a problem is with fists...Welcome to the real world.

maybe they were fighting to get in the only portable bathroom the organizers had kindly on site...

I am not a soccer fan nor a soccer parent (my son plays baseball). That being said, I hope the powers that be keep this ugly incident in perspective. The Manalapan Soccer Club hosts this tournament every Memorial Day and does a GREAT job. I am sure they will take positive steps to keep this from happening again, but let's not let a few bad apples spoil it for the hundreds who come here every year and enjoy the tournament, rave about our Rec Center and spend money in town.

Punching someone in the face is a "wonderful" example for children to see. Whatever happened to talking and discussing a problem? The puncher is teaching his child how to deal with an issue..very intelligent.

Great examples. Do you know these tournaments mean nothing. It is suppose to be a family weekend. You want a trophy - for what. I will but you one in the dollar store.

we have participated in this tournament for 4 years and i have never heard of this happening. dont these parents realize its just a game for their kids to play. while i would have been mad that my son was restrained, i wouldnt have hit the coach. what happens next? the kids on the field playing will become more aggressive because they mimic their parents way of dealing with things. i have noticed many teams resort to intimidation and pushing and shoving to the point of knowing its not just soccer, its a street fight! wonder who they get it from?

If my child was fighting and had to be restrained, I'd be angry with my child - not with the coach!

Be happy this isn't Florida....If it was, the guy who was punched could have pulled out his concealed gun and shot the guy who hit him...Sadly to acknowledge, there's alot of people around here who wish they could do that also.

As a soccer coach from another town, this is a sad and disappointing result in a nice tournament. Parents need to understand, your kids at 6 yrs old through 16 yrs old aren't going pro or getting into college from a local tournament. Lets remember these kids are playing for FUN, the parents are teaching them to be "dirty" or your the best. Cheer for everyone, make every kid feel like there a star! Parents forget all sports are TEAM games and teams win, not "your" superstar kid! Punish the parents, not the kids!!! Stay classy Marlboro and Manalapan!

This father is an example of what's wrong with child-rearing in the 21st century. The coach, an adult entrusted with the care of the children, does the right thing by restraining the kids so they don't get hurt or make a poor choice. The father is probably of this "nobody says a word to my child but me" mentality that there is nowadays and decided he was superior to the coach and had to punch him. Now this kid's teachers, coaches, and friends parents will never be able to say a word to him and he will probably grow up to be a snot-nosed punk like his dad.
Back in the day, ANY adult could reprimand ANY child, and if the parents got wind of it, they would unconditionally support what the other adult said. Nowadays teachers have to justify every time they give a timeout to little Theodore who couldn't possibly do anything wrong.

Parents and kids watch way too much ESPN and sports. This country has sports fatigue. How many pro players are in the four major sports couple of thousand. Chances are you will not make damn if you all focused on school this much and career wow this country would not be lagging. Enough with the tournaments and travel all about making the parents feel good.

Grew up in Marlboro and there has always been a major rivalry between Marlboro and Manalapan. The fights we had were at every football game and most Friday and Saturday nights at the Manalapan diner. The sad part is that the adults got involved. I coach a U9 girls team and I already and seeing very nasty rough games. People don't realize that soccer is the toughest sports the only protection that they have are shin guards. Does't surprise that a fight broke out coach did the right thing by trying to break it up, Parent should never have thrown a punch But getting the cops involved is ridiculous.

the fight was between marlboro and a team from Long Island,,The coach should have restrained his own player and not the marlboro player....while marlboro kid was being restrained the Long Island player was using him as a punching bag....now...what would you do?????

So it was ok for the father to punch the coach and not try to restrain the kid from Long Island? I was at a little league game many years ago when the police had to be called to restrain a coach who was tossed by the umpire for holding up the game in protest because his kid was called out for elbowing the 2nd baseman as he was rounding the bag on his way to 3rd base. When we were kids playing ball, we never had parents around...except to call us in for dinner. We didn't need them coaching or anything else. We went out and played on our own had a great time.

The essence of the problem - why are we having youth soccer tournaments on Memorial Day? It is baseball and softball season. Too many of these kids have been playing soccer year-round since a young age with few, if any, opportunities to try other sports so they could see what sport best suits them. Get rid of year round sports for kids under 15 and let them be kids again and play all sports with their peers in their community. They will end up being better all around athletes with fewer overuse injuries. If they have the talent to be HS or collegiate stars, it will show through and they will achieve success at that level.

As for the LI coach who restrained an opposing player - does he know anything about how adults deal with kids fighting? You simply get between them and tell them to knock it off. You do not restrain one player so the other can pummel him. His action escalated the situation instead of defusing it. He should not be coaching our youth.

My family and team participated in the tournament too. One of the teams we played (Ramapo Valley) was one of the most 'agressive' teams we've played, and the parents were disgusting. The entire game got totally out of hand, and it was up to the Referee to control the situation. Within minutes of the game, one of the RV players charged at the Ref, using fowl language, and the Ref did nothing. That set the tone for the entire game. It was horrendous. The parents were just as bad as the players, egging on the players and yelling at the Refs. A disgrace. There are 3 refs, they are trained to keep control of the game and can eject players and coaches from the game. We have always enjoyed the Manalapan Tournament, but it sounds like this year it got out of hand. Perhaps better screening and training of Refs might help the situation, too.

Too bad these parents didn't show the same energy towards math and science for their kids. Endless sports, raising funds for turf fields, doing everything to get a D1 scholarship. Meanwhile the Chinese and Indians are graduating tons of scientists and engineers. Got to love the sportsmanship and the example set for a youth soccer match!

The story is very sparse on facts. Maybe the parent who allegedly punched the other team's coach saw his son being touched inappropriately. The fact that no charges were filed speaks for itself - get on with your lives.

My daughter played at this tournament and I watched several games in between the games she played. Yes, there was some ugliness at these games but for the most part, I was impressed by the sportsmanship and play at the games I watched. For part of a boy's game I watched, a team scored a goal and you would have thought they just won the World Cup. I asked the goalie of the team that scored what the score was and he replied, we are losing 4-1 and we just wanted to score one goal. The game ended a minute later. This should be the spirit of these games. My daughter is in the same age group as the one where the players were fighting. I must say that I was appalled by the behavior of some of the players and some of the parents. As mentioned above, the refs need to take control of the game including the players and parents. Having a 16 year old curse at a ref and dispute call after call is just unacceptable. It is up to the ref to control that. There are something called yellow and red cards and that is how you control players that are out of control. It really shouldn't have to come to that but that is the world we live in. There are players antagonizing other players to throw them off their game and to get them to foul with a response. One girl called an opposing player's mom a whore. Where does this come from? I then turned around and looked up at the stands at the parents who were yelling at the refs and their players and it was clear where this came from.