Graham Stack has made six starts for Kerala Blasters FC in Hero Indian Super League 2016 and will be hoping for some more game-time when the Blasters host NorthEast United FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Sunday. The clash between the Blasters and the Highlanders will be the last league stage match of the season and will decide the last semi-finalist of Hero ISL 2016. Kerala require a draw to qualify, while NorthEast must win to make their maiden semis appearance. Stack, who has made 12 saves and 33 clearances in his six games so far, spoke exclusively to indiansuperleague.com ahead of the crunch match against NorthEast. Here are the excerpts from the interview.What are your thoughts on tomorrow’s match?Firstly, excitement as it should be. An amazing occasion as we have come a long way as a team and basically it comes down to our final game and there is a lot more to it than just a game and I want to be successful and not just qualify but go on to win the league but we are taking one game at a time and it is going to be a great spectacle, very noisy, very colourful and a very happy place.Kochi has been selected as the venue for the final, so what do you have to say about that?It’s beautiful, a stunning place and very green and the people are wonderful and a very pleasant place to stay and I think it is a venue worthy of an ISL final.In your recent blog post you said Indians are very energetic and have a high work ethic but they lack physical strength, so how important is ‘sports diet’ and is it missing in India?I think it is improving and I think it is awareness really and fortunately I was at Arsenal in an era when Arsene Wenger came in and completely changed everything and one of the key changes he made was diet. The English players earlier used to drink quite a lot and their diet was not as good as it should have been and that has changed over the years due to foreign influence and I think that has played a part in foreign players coming here and maybe teaching the young Indian players what is right and what to eat and not to eat and I think it is the small details that can help the athletes.Any message to Kerala Blasters fans…Well to the supporters I can’t really put it into words how grateful I am for their support, and the drive to the stadium is incredible. It is something I have never experienced before.
