Sync only one contact group
You can manage My Contacts (it's a system group, it should be there by default, you can create a new one also) in your GMail contacts, and then select those only you want to sync with phone, move everything else to other Groups.

When you will add the Google account to your device, go to contacts and select display options, and choose the My Contacts group only. (or whatever you created)

This will limit the contacts appearing in the contacts list.