Cape Town – Kaizer Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp says the club are fully in support of goalkeeper Virgil Vries despite his shocking blunder against Mamelodi Sundowns.
Vries cost Chiefs at least a point in Saturday's opening Absa Premiership game of the new year when he raced out of his area to try and intercept a long ball from Lyle Lakay.
However, he allowed the ball to bounce over his head, resulting in the lively Lebohang Maboe to tap the ball inside the net from the six-yard box.
Vries was selected in the encounter against the Brazilians as a replacement for Itumeleng Khune, who has been ruled out for the duration of the 2018/19 season with a shoulder injury.
Speaking to Chiefs' official website, the German said: "He remains a good keeper. He recovered immediately, and no doubt Virgil will soldier on with the support from the team.
"We committed mistakes here and there. We conceded two goals through mistakes. The good thing is in our dressing room we don't single out players and play a blame game. We are professionals and we take a loss as a collective.
"We had moments where we could have scored the winner, there were several missed opportunities. We will go back to the training grounds to rectify those. At the end we lost against a resolute Sundowns and I wish to congratulate them."
The Glamour Boys are next in action on Wednesday night when they take on log leaders Wits in Johannesburg. It is unclear whether Vries will start the match or if Bruce Bvuma could in fact be given the nod.
