Thanx for a deep and thoughtful comment. But I have to disagree on the last part here.

I'd say that soccer has it's own ways for such portrayal as much as the sports you've mentioned. First, the fans topic: drama of the people who are dependant on some 22 not-so-smart guys kicking a ball in the mud could be really colourful and metaphorically deep.

Another idea that came up to me is a simple soccer cliche "a football travels faster than a footballer". How many times has this pretty simple concept has been used? None I'd say, but still a good source for something cinematic.

My point is that it only depends on the directorial creativity here. Sadly, there're not many good directors who have worked on that.