Karius gets much-needed support

Germany's coaching staff sent a message of support to Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius after his costly errors in the Champions League final defeat by Real Madrid, goalkeeping coach Andreas Koepke said Tuesday.

"We have tried to help him pick himself him up and we wrote to him telling him to keep his head up," said Koepke, the former Germany international.

Head coach Joachim Loew, team manager Oliver Bierhoff and Koepke, all currently in northern Italy for a World Cup training camp, sent Karius a text message following Saturday's final in Kiev.

Koepke, a World Cup  and European champion with Germany in the 1990s, slammed certain extremely critical remarks of the 24-year-old Karius in the wake of his two glaring mistakes.