kaiserslautern fall at first hurdle published: thursday 16 october 2003, 23.59cet teplice 1-0 kaiserslautern (agg: 3-1) henrich bencík's goal puts another german team out.
1. fc kaiserslautern became the third german side to tumble out of the uefa cup at the first-round stage when their 1-0 defeat at the hands of fk teplice dealt the czech side a 3-1 aggregate triumph.
bencík beauty hot on the heels of hertha bsc berlin and hamburger sv's exits from the competition on wednesday, kaiserslautern bowed out after henrich bencík's solitary 71st-minute strike in the na stínadlech stadium gave the home side victory on the night as well as a place in the second round.
wonderful wiese kaiserslautern were without their injured captain aleksander knavs and striker vratislav lokvenc and faced an uphill task against the side which beat them 4-0 on home soil in last season's uefa intertoto cup. the german side had their goalkeeper tim wiese to thank for a string of early saves, notably from teplice captain pavel horváth, whose volley from distance seemed destined for the back of the net.
klose miss at the other end, wiese's opposite number tomás postulka presented miroslav klose with a goalscoring chance when he parries from a one-on-one situation against kamil kosowski, but the german international striker blasted the ball over the crossbar.
straka satisfied despite dominating much of the second half, kaiserslautern were undone by a wonderful one-touch move involving pavel horváth and jan rezek which released bencík for the game's only goal. bencík had a great chance to double the lead late on but wiese denied him - although by that stage teplice coach frantisek straka, who spent much of his playing career in germany, was already satisfied.
