VANCOUVER - It took Christine Sinclair nine games to score her first goal this season for the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League.

And the Canadian international from Burnaby has still got just that lone goal in 10 games despite leading the NWSL in shots with 41.

“Sooner of later, Sinc’s going to get hot,” head coach Paul Riley said recently of the woman who tallied eight times last season when she helped lead the Thorns to the inaugural NWSL championship.

“She even said to me that, ‘I’ve never been in this kind of funk in front of net.’ We’ll get her out of it. I still think she’ll get 13 to 15 goals once she gets to taking over.”

Maybe, another turn in Canada shirt can help the just-turned 31-year-old get out of that funk.

Sinclair, the country’s all-time leader in goals with 148 in 209 international matches, will lead Canada against No. 2-ranked Germany, which features one of her Thorns’ teammates in goalkeeper Natalie Angerer, in a friendly at B.C. Place on Wednesday.

The game is another in a series of tune-ups for next summer’s seventh FIFA Women’s World Cup to be held in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and Moncton.

While Sinclair has struggled to find the net in the NWSL, it’s generally been a good season for the other Canadians allocated to the league, the third attempt at creating a place to play for top U.S., Mexican and Canadian pros.

Veteran midfielder Diana Matheson of the Washington Spirit is tied for fourth in goals with five and tied for second in assists with three. Young forward Adriana Leon, a Mississauga, Ont., native, has a goal and three assists with Chicago.

“I think this year, you’re starting to see some real benefits,” says John Herdmann, head coach of the Canadian national team.

“I thought Year 1 was always going to be a challenge. The league started pretty late, people were scurrying around to make sure they got the league off the ground. And with that, there were a few challenges, just internally and making sure world-class athletes were getting a real, professional, world-class experience.

“This year, there’s definitely been improvements. I think the coaching standards have increased and quality of play in the league has progressively got better. And from what I hear from the players, the experience has been better this year.”

One of those who is enjoying the experience more this year is midfielder Kaylyn Kyle, a Saskatoon native.

She spent last season playing out of position as a centre back with the Seattle Reign before being traded to Boston in the off-season. Just a week into this season, she was traded again to the expansion Houston Dash.

The Dash are the second of the league’s nine franchises – Portland is the other – to be owned by a Major League Soccer team.

“It’s been amazing, it’s like a dream,” Kyle said on Friday after a national team practice session at Trillium Park in Vancouver. “It’s really nice playing for a team that’s run by an MLS team because they know how to run a professional organization from the top down.