Oliver Kahn of the tournament that Kahn became the starting goalkeeper. Two years after the 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, in which defending champions Germany made an embarrassing exit in the group stage, Kahn received the squad's captaincy, succeeding the striker Oliver Bierhoff. Kahn experienced one of his worst performances in his international career against England in Munich in 2001. Germany were favoured to win as they had beaten England 1–0 in 2000 at the Wembley Stadium. However, they were routed 5–1, including a hat-trick by Michael Owen. Despite the defeat, Germany qualified for the World Cup after winning a playoff against
James Kahn E.T.'s death. While on the set, Kahn gave a copy of his novel, "World Enough, and Time", to Spielberg – which resulted in Kahn getting the assignment to novelize the movie "Poltergeist", then in post-production. Kahn did several more novelizations after that – "Return of the Jedi", "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", "The Goonies" and "Poltergeist II". During this period he also began to get television work, writing first for "St. Elsewhere", and later, "E/R" – a sitcom about an emergency department starring Elliott Gould and Mary MacDonald, in which Kahn created the character of a teen orderly