The stopper in soccer is used when your opponent has an exceptional player who must be stopped in order for our team to win. The stopper plays man-to-man against the star player all over the field. Once our team losses possession of the ball, the stopper must be positioned between the ball and the star player keeping her from receiving a pass. If the star player gets the ball then she is challenged by our stopper and is supported by her nearest teammate in that area of the field. In other words, the star player is double teamed by us when she gets the ball.
Shown in the soccer field diagram (click the pic to enlarge) is how we will transition from a triple diamond offense to using a stopper. We do give up our center striker and consequently the middle diamond disappears. The stopper sets up in the middle of the field between our midfielders and defensive backs.
The use of a stopper will weaken our upfront striking/scoring ability unless our wing midfielders take a more offensive role in carrying the attack down the sidelines (see soccer diagram). They can do this because the stopper is our 4th defenseman – the wing midfielders do not have to come all the way back to cover our far post when we go on defense.
Even though we lose the middle diamond passing options with a stopper, it’s not a big deal. Please read the article entitled “Tactics - Ball Flow” in the right margin of this webpage.
Summary
The stopper’s sole role is to stop our opponent’s star player from scoring. If successful, our chances of winning the game are very good.