Clint Dempsey has a bit of a reputation. It might even be fair to say that he sometimes crosses the line from scrappy to dirty. Although he's never been shown a red card, he has been suspended a couple times. So, it's understandable that people tend to look at incidents involving him a bit more closely than they might with other players.

That said, I'd be more than a little surprised if Dempsey was suspended for either of the incidents Simon Borg looks at in this week's "Instant Replay" (video above).

The first incident involves a supposed "stomp." Unless there's another camera angle with a more clear view, it seems like quite a stretch to see the Disciplinary Committee taking any action based on this:

Dempsey looks like he might have stepped on Ned Grabavoy's leg and I suppose you could make the argument that it was purposeful, but I'm just not seeing anything that comes close to the stomp that got Marcelo Sarvas a two-game suspension a few weeks ago. It also looks like he goes back to check on Grabavoy, hardly something he'd be doing if he just stomped on him.

The other incident is even less clear, with Dempsey catching Chris Winger with a stray elbow. Here it is:

Again, Dempsey clearly makes contact but there's really nothing here to suggest that it was purposeful.

Simon Borg also looks at a trio of penalty shouts from the game, coming to the conclusion that Obafemi Martins was unjustly shown a yellow for simulation on a play that should have been a penalty, that Chad Marshall got away with penalty on David Villa and that Kwame Watson-Siriboe had a fair challenge on Martins.