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[Headless Man]

So while on a break from a larger project, I had a goofy idea for a simple iPad game that I thought I could whip up fairly quickly.
Basic premise is a two or four-player football/soccer variant where players kick a virtual ball around a field (the touch screen) using their fore- and index fingers as feet. A bit like this:

(there's much more to it, possibly too much more, but finger soccer is the closest analog I can think of).

An issue arose when I was hashing out the details: 'Feet' are not allowed to leave the touch screen for more than a microsecond or two.  Similarly, I want the players to move their fingers by way of alternate 'steps' - no sliding them along the screen together.
Problems enter when getting the game to understand where the player's 'foot' is supposed to be after they move both of their fingers together, or if the feet of several different players have left the screen at once.
 
It would be easy enough to just freeze play and make the players recalibrate their foot position at their end of the field, but that would break the flow of play.  I don't want to get in weird situations where the program makes a best guess and confuses one player's fingertip for another because their fingers got in a tussle and two or more left the screen in close proximity - but simply forcing each player to put their finger on the precise mark where it left the screen seems like it could be a bit frustrating in the heat of play.  

I had an idea where players lose a 'shoe' when the finger loses contact with the screen (which they need to be able to kick the ball at all) that they have to retrieve by docking the naked 'foot' with the loose shoe (other players can also kick loose shoes around), but I don't think this solves the problem.
Any ideas?

(Incidentally, I'm looking for a programmer who can do iDevice stuff to help put this thing together - PM me if you're interested or curious).

EDIT: Ugh, bit of a wall of text - broke it up a bit.